Chamber Musicians “Artu Duo” to Play HSU’s Guest Artist Series

Arto Duo, cellist Ruth Marshall and pianist Garret Ross

The Humboldt State University Department of Music welcomes chamber musicians and dedicated music educators Artu Duo, comprised of cellist Ruth Marshall and pianist Garret Ross, on Sunday, March 10 at 2 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

This first Guest Artist Series concert of the year will feature familiar classical repertoire along with less widely known yet accessible works from the 20th century. The Variations for Cello and Piano in E flat major on Mozart’s “Bei Männern” by Ludwig van Beethoven explores a variety of famous themes from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. The Artu Duo will also perform the Sonata in D Major for Cello and Piano, op. 102 no. 2, Beethoven’s fifth and final cello sonata which begins with a joyous fanfare, continues with a quiet and introspective second movement, and ends with the most complex fugue imaginable.

British composer Frank Bridge began writing his Sonata for Cello and Piano in 1913, and it was completed in 1917. It is in many ways a musical meditation on World War I. The two-movement work, at times lyrical and noble, at times fragmented and questioning, ends with a reference to the material of the first movement, symbolizing hope’s triumph over despair. Also on the program will be Sonata in C for Cello and Piano, originally composed for legendary Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich by Benjamin Britten, the well-known British composer who was also the most gifted composition student of Frank Bridge.

Pianist Garret Ross and cellist Ruth Marshall met in 2009 at the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, Texas. Since their first performance in 2011, their collaboration has grown and thrived. In addition to their individual studies, Marshall and Ross studied chamber music together, first in 2011 through a residency at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, where they studied the Beethoven Sonatas for Cello and Piano with Colin Carr and Thomas Sauer, and again in 2012 as resident artists at the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk, England, where they studied the music of Brahms and Schumann with Menahem Pressler.

Artu Duo has been the ensemble-in-residence at the Apollo Music Festival in Houston, Minnesota since its founding in 2013. In the same year, they made their debut on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series at the Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois, which was broadcast live on WFMT. Since then, they have played concerts on the Music Northwest Chamber Music Series, the Courtroom Concert Series, Spectrum, Brooklyn Center for the Arts and at Bethel University, Butler University, Illinois State University, University of Louisiana, Louisiana State University, and the State University of New York. In November 2016, they made their debut at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ross and Marshall are both active as teachers, and have been delighted to participate in outreach activities as a duo. Artu Duo was most recently in residence with the Britt Festival’s Education and Engagement program in Southern Oregon in March 2018.

A Seattle native, cellist Marshall has developed a diverse career as a pedagogue, orchestral player, and chamber musician. She is Principal Cello of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the Minneapolis-based Mill City String Quartet. Marshall is a dedicated teacher, and has been on the faculties of the DePaul University School of Music, the Butler University Community Arts School, the Illinois State University, and Eastern Illinois University. She spends her summers in Jacksonville, Oregon, where she is a member of the Britt Festival Orchestra.

Marshall holds undergraduate degrees in Comparative History of Ideas and Music Theory from the University of Washington in Seattle, and graduate degrees in cello performance from DePaul University in Chicago.

Pianist Ross enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. With a perpetual interest in chamber music, Ross is the founder and Artistic Director of The Apollo Chamber Music Festival, now in its fifth year. Most recently, Ross has presented solo recitals at the Roerich Museum, and the Young Masters Recital Series. Ross currently teaches at the Saint Paul Conservatory, and maintains a large private studio in Minneapolis. He attended NYU’s Steinhardt School, the University of Minnesota, and Bethel University. His principal teachers were Eteri Andjaparidze and Alexander Braginsky. Both Andjaparidze and Braginsky studied at the Moscow Conservatory where their teachers, Vera Gornostayeva and Teodor Gutmann, respectively, were students of Heinrich Neuhaus.

The performance takes place Sunday, March 10 at 2 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall. $15 General, $5 Child, $5 HSU students with ID. For more information, contact HSU Department of Music, 707.826.3531, [email protected]