Mark Landson and Patricia Garcia Hill

American/Spanish collaborators perform exceptional musical journeys by Mozart and award winning composer Mark Landson.

The violin/piano duo of Mark Landson and Patricia Garcia Hill (Gil) debuted in Barcelona in October 2019. Hill is a Spanish pianist based in Florence, Italy, and Landson has been called “the Elon Musk of the North Texas classical music scene” for his multiple talents as a performer, composer and classical music visionary behind Open Classical. Music has brought them together and created a fast bond of passionately shared musical ideals.

They met in May 2019, when Hill was on tour in the USA and performed a successful recital on Open Classical’s Artist Series. When she heard Landson’s original compositions, she suggested they look for opportunities in Europe to perform them together. Their duo debuted in October 2019 in Barcelona at the MEAM Museum. Landson immediately asked her to join her back in Texas for this Artist Series tour.

Apart from their shared passion for creating a new modern emotional music aesthetic, Landson and Hill enjoy interpreting the classical repertoire, which you will hear in the Mozart Sonata in A Major. Patricia Hill is a world renowned expert in the field of historical piano practice of the fortepiano, the early form of piano used by Mozart and his contemporaries.

Next on the program is Landson’s Suite from “Le Mozart Noir” a ballet collaboration with Ballet Dallas and the Dallas Bach Society, a commission from the Donna Wilhelm Family New Works fund. The work presents vignettes from the life of Le Chevalier de Saint George, a fascinating and world famous character of 18th century Paris who was known as the “Black Mozart”. The son of a French nobleman and his slave mistress, Saint George was a legendary swordsman, violinist, composer and soldier.

The finale of the program is Landson’s work “Travels”, a metaphysical journey in 4 movements. Landson wrote much of the piece while living in Spain in the 1990’s. The work tells the story of a protagonist’s quest to keep optimism in his life in the face of the inevitable difficulties we all face. The work was the grand prize winner of the 2016 edition of “The Ear” in New York City, a competition where the audience is asked just one question: “Do you want to hear that again?”

PROGRAM

Sonata No 18 in G Major by WA Mozart K.301
1. Allegro con Spirito
2. Allegro

Suite from Le Mozart Noir Ballet by Mark Landson
1. Rondeau
2. Romance
3. Minuet
4. Chase
5. Lament
6. March
7. Reminiscence

Travels by Mark Landson
1. filled with youth and optimism
2. the eternal question
3. prayer
4. finding joy and wonder

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