WFU Secrest season opens with Finckel and Han duo

David Finckel, cello; and Wu Han, piano

Wake Forest University’s 2005-2006 Secrest Artist Series will open with a concert by renowned cello-piano duo David Finckel and Wu Han at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 8 in Brendle Recital Hall.

In conjunction with the concert, Wake Forest’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts will co-sponsor a lecture by Finckel and Han titled “Unfolding a Career: Heart of an Artist, Mind of a Venture Team” at 11 a.m. Sept. 8 in Scales Fine Arts Center, Music Wing, Room 103.

Finckel and Han’s concerts have been described as “having a front row seat at the music of the spheres without the inconvenience of dying first.” Ranked among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today, the couple will perform Bach’s “The Unfolding of Music,” Beethoven’s Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69, as well as other pieces by Schumann, Claude Debussy and Benjamin Britten.

Finckel and Han are the creators of Music@Menlo, a music festival in Menlo Park, Cal., as well as their own recording label, ArtistLed, which is classical music’s first musician-directed, internet-based recording company. They were also recently appointed Artistic Directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

The Secrest Artist Series will include four other concerts this season: Oct. 27, “Treemonisha,” Rick Benjamin’s new version of Scott Joplin’s folk opera, 7:30 p.m., Wait Chapel.

Nov. 15, Ensemble Kaboul, performing the traditional music of Afghanistan and featuring singer Ustad Farida Mahwash, 7:30 p.m., Brendle Recital Hall.

Feb. 28, Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, featuring Chief Conductor Ivor Bolton and piano soloist Stephen Hough, 7:30 p.m., Wait Chapel.

March 30, Isabel Bayrakdarian, renowned Armenian-Canadian soprano, 7:30 p.m., Brendle Recital Hall.

Tickets for the Finckel and Han concert are $16 for adults; $12 for senior citizens and non-WFU students; and $5 for children under 12. They will be available after Labor Day by calling the Theatre Box Office at 336-758-5295. Group discounts are available. Season tickets are $100 and are also available through the Box Office.

For more information about any of these concerts, call 336-758-5757.