Virtuoso violinist Hilary Hahn, jazz pianist Fred Hersch and fiddle player Mark O'Connor highlight a diverse and wide-ranging 2016-2017 season at Spivey Hall.
Hahn will perform at the venue, which is on the campus of Clayton State University, on March 26, 2017, as part of the strings series. That run of concerts also includes appearances by Trio Settecento (Oct. 30), the Lysander Piano Trio (Nov. 13) and the Danish String Quartet (Feb. 4, 2017).
Hersch’s April 8 performance closes the jazz series, which will also bring the Christian Sands Trio (Nov. 12) and the Sean Jones Quartet (March 4, 2017) to the Spivey stage.
Other notable performers include Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozená (Oct. 15), guitarist Eliot Fisk (Oct. 23) and Mark O’Connor and his O’Connor Family (Feb. 18, 2017).
The 26th season of programming at Spivey Hall also highlights the 25th anniversary of the Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ with performances by newly minted organist-in-residence Alan Morrison. The organist served as resident musician last year on a one-season stretch, but he recently signed a long-term contract and will fulfill residency duties at Spivey for the next five seasons.
According to Sam Dixon, Spivey’s executive and artistic director, the organ helped make the hall what it is today. Benefactor Emilie Spivey worked to create a recital space that would highlight the acoustic power of the instrument, he said. A byproduct of this is a hall with some of the best acoustics in metro Atlanta.
But the season is not all about celebrating the organ. Dixon said he works to craft a program that will comfort audience members, while also introducing them to unique musical perspectives. His role as a presenter is to “enrich the cultural wealth of this area,” he said, and that means constantly increasing the scope of his artists’ roster and not going to the same well year after year when booking.
“I feel that every season needs to be a very conscious combination of the familiar and the new,” Dixon said. “A sense of discovery is important for concertgoers.”
When Spivey Hall began its first season in 1991, the area southeast of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was vastly underserved in the arts arena. The freedom to book as diverse an array of music as he can dream up and an endowment to back it up have helped Dixon mold the surrounding area into an arts oasis. Unlike other arts spaces in metro Atlanta housed within universities, Dixon said he isn’t programming first and foremost for the students of Clayton State University. Though many of his programs have an educational aspect, making Spivey an arts mecca is his first priority.
“The people I’m programming for are the people who have a passion for great music,” he said.
Ultimately, when Dixon thinks about a season, his passion for a particular artist and his ability to get an audience excited about the new and unfamiliar trump any other consideration.
“If I can’t get enthusiastic about it, why should I expect my patrons to?” he asked.
“The music has to be first rate. Life is too short.”
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