...can sometimes get pretty interesting. Let's hope the one in which you participate this Christmas season doesn't have a finale like this one. (Hat tip to Alex Ross for the link.)

It's well-known here in Columbia that USC is making a big push to attract world-class faculty in areas like nanotechnology and other high-tech fields of research. It's less well-known that, in the last few years, the USC School of Music has managed to reel in some big fish of its own, making some outstanding hires and thus continuing to enhance its national profile. One of these prize "catches" is the bassoonist Peter Kolkay, who is new to the faculty this year and came to Columbia with an already dazzling resume. In 2002 Kolkay became the first bassoonist in the 51-year history of the Concert Artists Guild competition to receive a First Prize; two years later, he was the first bassoonist ever to receive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

The honors continue for Kolkay; last week, the performing-rights organization BMI announced that he has been named the winner of the Carlos Surinach Award, given to an emerging artist in recognition of outstanding service to American music. Kolkay is a wonderful musician (we both performed a trio of Jo Kondo's in New York three years ago) and if you want to hear him live in Columbia, mark February 11th on your calendar now. That's the date of his debut faculty recital at the School of Music.

If the jangle of "Jingle Bells" and other Muzak'd carols in the mall are making you go bug-eyed (bug-eared?), clear your mind and feed it some hearty musical fare this week...Wednesday the 13th is another installment in the chamber music series at the Columbia Museum of Art, hosted by Charles Wadsworth. It's a stellar trio coming to town, violinist Chee-Yun, cellist Edward Arron, and pianist Christopher O'Riley. O'Riley, certainly a pianist of the first rank, has gotten a lot of attention for his recording and performing projects involving the music of Radiohead, Nick Drake, and the like. Otis Taylor interviewed O'Riley about those genre-busting endeavors in the "State" last week and you can read that here.

O'Riley's really significant accomplishment of recent years, to my mind, is serving as the adept host of the public radio series "From the Top." That show goes around the country seeking out bright young musical talent, gives their guests an opportunity to perform on nationwide radio and does it all in an unstuffy, sometimes amiably goofy format that seems designed in part to appeal to the same generation of listeners from which the performers are drawn. One would be hard-pressed to imagine another performing artist of O'Riley's abilities able to pull off the hosting gig as adroitly. Sadly, the show is not carried by any South Carolina station; however, WDAV 89.9 FM in Davidson, NC does broadcast the show, and it is apparently also available on XM Satellite Radio.

The Wednesday concert includes the ravishing Richard Strauss violin sonata (which has a monster piano part), as well as works by Debussy and Brahms. Show is at 7 PM. Check the link at the top for ticket info.

Tuesday the Richland County Council voted 9-2 in favor of a $12 million allocation to Columbia's Township Auditorium for renovation purposes. The prospects for the 75-year-old Township have seesawed back and forth in the last few years: a grander plan for much more extensive renovations fell through when Columbia City Council backed out of a agreement to split the cost with County Council, and there had been some recent talk of converting the property to condominiums. The vote this week keeps the Auditorium alive as a performance venue, which I believe is the right decision for our community. 

I'm at a disadvantage talking about the Township since I've never set foot there in the few years I've lived here. Most events that are now booked there don't particularly interest me, except for the big-name comedians who have played there recently like Jerry Seinfeld. But a 3200-seat hall of historic significance is worth saving if at all possible; once it's gone, it's gone.

It's not for the sake of classical music that I think fixing up the Township is a worthwhile endeavor; 3200 seats is too large a hall to fill in this market for any classical act that I can think of. And, again, I don't know the hall's acoustics or other physical idiosyncracies. But I can imagine it being put to more use for really high-quality pop acts, R&B, jazz, country, bluegrass, world music, etc...in other words, "mid-size market" events for which Colonial Center is too big but which call for more atmosphere than can be found at the glorified high school auditorium known as the Koger Center.

Bravo to County Council for deciding to move ahead on its own on this issue.

One of the joys of being a pianist  is the secure knowledge that you'll never run out of new adventures on which to embark, the adventures that lie ahead each time one sets forth to learn a new piece of music. New to one's own repertoire, that is. For a pianist, there's way more music than a single person can ever learn in a lifetime. During the time I taught at the University of Michigan, I made lists while listening to juried student performances each semester. Each piece I heard went into one of four categories: works I'd already learned (never, of course, a finished process), works I could happily go to my grave never having played (Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze, a lot of Liszt), works that I don't have anything against but probably just aren't high enough on my priority list to learn (Ravel Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, about 500 out of the 555 Scarlatti Sonatas), and works that I passionately love and want to learn and live with till the day I die.

Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No. 4 in D Major has been in that last group for some time. Please join me this Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 12:30 PM at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia and share this journey of discovery with me. I'll be playing the Partita on Trinity's user-friendly lunchtime concert series: the music is free, but they serve a really nice lunch in the fellowship hall for $5 either from 12 to 12:30, or after the 30-minute concert, at 1:00 PM.

Is there any music more life-affirming in its first seconds than this Partita? It is literally uplifting, as a glance at the three rising flourishes by each voice in turn, in each of the first three measures, confirms. In glancing at some interesting links on the Partitas, one by my former (and brilliant) colleague at Michigan, harpsichordist Ed Parmentier, and a great audio clip analysis by Richard Goode, the following words recur: sunny, radiant, warm, courtly, majestic, grand, huge, all-embracing. Adjectives like these naturally abound when talking about the 4th Partita. Even its more introverted movements, like the Sarabande or Menuet, manage to retain a fundamentally optimistic atmosphere, as fragile single voices wandering in a seemingly aimless fashion eventually find their way home.

The space at Trinity fits this music perfectly; this work of Bach's is a prayer of hope and optimism. In these troubled times, I hope you can join me Wednesday and share the joy this music brings me.