Feb. 6, 2006 -- The Department of Music at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will present the fourth concert in the 2005-06 Faculty Recital Series on Sunday, Feb. 19, at 3 p.m. in Bradbury Gallery of Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive.

The faculty recital is the first collaboration between the music department and the art department at ASU. Feb. 19 will be the last day of the Faculty Biennial Exhibition in the Bradbury Gallery.

The program for the afternoon will include “Impromptu in B-flat,” Op. Posth. 142, D. 935, No. 3 for solo piano, performed by Lauren Schack Clark. The “Impromptu in B-flat,” was written as Schubert began the last year of his life in late 1827. The variations are based on a theme from incidental music that he composed for Helmina von Chézy’s play “Rosamunde.” Schubert previously used the melody in the Andante movement of his A minor String Quartet, written in 1824.

Dr. Clark will then be joined by Matthew Carey to perform Schubert’s “Schwanengesang” (Swan Song), one of his 14 songs. The “Schwanengesang” is not a song cycle in the strictest sense, but rather a collection of songs written by the composer in the last year of his life, 1828, and later sold as a set by his brother Ferdinand, in order to settle some of Schubert’s debts.

The collection includes some of Schubert’s greatest masterpieces such as “Liebesbotschaft” (Love’s Messenger), “Ständchen” (Serenade), “Die Stadt” (The Town), and “Der Doppelgänger” (The Double). The songs are remarkable not only for their beauty and profundity, but also for the incredible variety in both style and texture.

Throughout this musical journey, Schubert reminisces on the babbling brooks and strophic form of his early songs and looks ahead to his impending pre-mature death at age 35. Although there is no clear musical or textual theme, Schubert remains faithful to his eternal optimism, even as he grew more gravely ill. The last song, “Die Taubenpost” (The Carrier Pigeon), is a metaphor for hope and anticipation of great accomplishments yet to come.

Clark is assistant professor of piano and keyboard activities at ASU. She performs frequently as a soloist and collaborative artist. She was selected to perform at the 2005 TCU-Cliburn Institute Teachers Session in Fort Worth. She has played with principle players of the Boston Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Scottish National Symphony, Slovenian Radio Symphony, Cincinnati Orchestra, Arkansas Symphony, and Memphis Symphony, and with faculty members of the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Cincinnati College Conservatory, Oberlin College, the University of Memphis, as well as ASU. She concertized in Paris in 1997 in conjunction with the Institute for Advanced Vocal Study, and again at the 2001 French Piano Institute. With her husband, bassoonist Dr. Dale Clark, she has played at the Cork School of Music, Ireland, Florida State University, the University of Washington-Seattle, the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Nebraska, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Boston Conservatory.

Her students have won first prizes in such competitions as the Tennessee Music Teachers Association auditions and the Beethoven Club competition. She is president of the Delta Music Teachers Association, chair of the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association Chamber Music and Young Artist Competitions, and has served as secretary of The Massachusetts Music Teachers Association and the Greater Memphis Music Teachers Association. She holds a doctorate from Boston University, a master’s degree from Northwestern University, a graduate diploma from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass., and a bachelor‘s degree from the Hartt School of Music.

A veteran of the concert and opera stage, Carey has been a member of the voice faculty at ASU since 1997. He teaches applied voice, German and French diction, vocal pedagogy, music appreciation and song literature. He is the music director and conductor for the ASU Theatre Department's annual musical and co-hosts "Spotlight on the Arts" on KASU.

Spanning a career performing more than 40 roles, Carey has sung with opera companies throughout the United States, including the San Diego Opera in “Albert Herring;” Greensboro Opera in “Carmen;” Mississippi Opera in “Pelléas et Mélisande;” Santa Barbara Grand Opera as Guglielmo in “Cosi fan tutte” and the Shubert Opera in “Faust.” Other leading roles include “Manon,” “La Bohème,” “Falstaff,” “I Pagliacci” and “Don Giovanni.”

From 1992-1996 he was principle baritone with the prestigious opera ensemble at the Theater Lübeck, Germany. More recently, Carey was seen as Victor Velasco in Neil Simon's “Barefoot in the Park” and played the title role in “The Will Rogers Follies” in Jonesboro.
As a concert artist, he has performed with the symphony orchestras of Hamburg, Kotka (Finland), Santa Barbara, the NDR Orchester of Bremen, the Delta Symphony Orchestra and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

Currently, he sings with the professional group, Memphis Vocal Arts Ensemble. Carey continues to perform recitals throughout the region with a repertoire from the song cycles of Schubert and Schumann to popular standards of Gershwin, Kern, Berlin and Rogers. He has been selected for several national singing competitions, most recently the American Traditions Competition in Savannah, Ga. Carey has conducted vocal master classes at the University of Southern California, Opera in the Ozarks, University of Arkansas, John Brown University, Ouachita Baptist University and California State University at Northridge.

He is also a frequent clinician at the ASU Choir Camp as well as area high schools. He conducts a bi-weekly studio class open to all voice students. He is a regular adjudicator at state and regional competitions with his students frequently reaching the finals. Carey completed his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and received his master’s degree from the University of Michigan. He has done post-graduate study at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Yale University.

This concert is free and open to the public. For more details, please call the Department of Music at 870-972-2094.