Introducing: noonartsound
The O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library and UST faculty members Shelly Nordtorp-Madson (art history) and Chris Kachian (music) invite you to a series of noontime talks on a variety of periods in art, sculpture, painting, costume history along with guitar music of the corresponding time periods. Shelley and Chris have been performing full-length concerts together for 10 years.
The Library is happy to announce this new series and extends an invitation to all. Shelley and Chris share a unique style, humor, academic breadth of knowledge, along with beautiful yet “unstuffy” presentations of their art. Bring your lunch, light refreshments will be provided.
The noonartsound schedule:
i Tuesday, March 5 “parlor 1590-1890” Noon to 1pm
features the design and art and music of what we call the living room – Shelley will give a presentation about art of the period; Chris will play music of the times with compositions from Dowland, Corbetta, Devisee, Vivaldi, Wiener, and Tarrega.
O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library, O’Shaughnessy Room, 108
ii Tuesday, April 2 “queens prefer…” Noon to 1pm
highlights the sights and sounds of England in the late 16th Century
O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library
iii Tuesday, May 7 “invierno” Noon to 1pm
spotlights the look, feel and touch of the Latin American world
O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library
iv Tuesday, October 1 – “…don’t mean a thing…” Noon to 1pm
brings you the art and music of the Jazz Era
O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library
About the Artists:
Christopher Kachian, guitarist, and professor of Music at the University of St. Thomas, has performed throughout Europe, the Americas, South and Central America and the Far East, as recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. His American performances have included a significant number of works written in the last twenty-five years, many of them commissions. These include over thirty works for guitar including 20 concerti. He has written Composer’s Desk Reference for the Classic Guitar in consultation with over 25 composers, published by Mel Bay Publications. He has been heard on Minnesota Public Radio, National Public Radio and American Public Media (including several appearances on A Prairie Home Companion).
Notable premiere recordings include Conrad Susa’s Carols and Lullabies (RCA 1995), David Baker’s Images, Shadows and Dreams (Collins Classics 1996 and Clarion as Dance Like the Wind, Music of Today’s Black Composers), Woodwind Music (Innova 1997), phoenix ensemble#1 (Valve-Hearts [Germany] 1998), Falls Flyer (10,000 Lakes 2002), Cyprus, First Impressions (Innova 2006), The J.S. Bach Sonatas for Gamba and Harpsichord for Guitar and Harpsichord by Chris Kachian and David Jenkins (2007), A Night in Vienna, (10, 000 Lakes 2011). With the Arpeggione Duo he has recorded Wanderer Sonata and Folklore (Ars Nova [Stockholm] 2006, 2009). Numerous other recordings of music ranging from blues to Christmas music are in his discography.
Since 1984, Dr. Kachian has directed one of the largest guitar programs in the USA at the University of St Thomas. He has lectured in music of Europe, the Americas, the Twentieth-Century, the World, the United States, Film, Protest, Mathematics, and Guitar Pedagogy and Guitar Literature. He is the founder of the UST Music Business, Recording Arts, and the Popular Music degrees. 2001 – 2005, he served as Director of Guitar Studies for MMTA for whom he lead – authored and edited the nation’s first comprehensive, multi-genre guitar pedagogy syllabus. In 2011, he wrote the film score for Per Bianca, which won Best Film at the Minnesota 48-Hour Film Festival and won a screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
Recent notable USA premiere performances are Astor Piazzolla’s Double Concerto and Franz Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata. The ongoing series of Baroque concerts, with keyboardist, David Jenkins, with the Society for the Doctrinal Affectation of Baroque Music, an early music ensemble and the Arpeggione Duo, a Stockholm-based cello and guitar duo specializing in new folk music, round out his concert career.
To round out his biography, in 2012 Dr. Kachian received national recognition by the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity as a National Arts Associate and Distinguished Member.
Shelly Nordtorp-Madson is the chief curator and clinical faculty in the Department of Art History.
She holds an MA in Medieval Art History, a PhD in Design History, and a technical diploma in dress design and draping. At UST she designs and mounts exhibits in OEC and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in medieval art and dress history.
After spending four years on a nine-month language immersion program in Denmark, she moved to Minnesota, where she wandered around accumulating degrees and returning to Scandinavia whenever possible. Having worked at UST in a possibly record-setting number of positions, she now, as well as curatorial work and teaching, presents papers annually on medieval dress and her most recent obsession: shape-shifting in the medieval period, particularly relating to otters.
We invite you to join us!
