Lecture and recital Nov. 6 highlights works for solo violin

Violinist Richard Luby will present a recital and lecture Nov. 6 at Appalachian State University on Bach’s works for solo violin. The program begins at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.

Luby is a member of the UNC Chapel Hill Department of Music. He has been presenting the works in a series of performances based on a theory that they are interrelated and constitute a unified whole comprising a blending of Bach’s spiritual and secular musical worlds, and that they are unique in their scope and character.

Bach completed his set of six sonatas and partitas for solo violin in 1720, which today are considered an essential part of the violin repertoire.

Luby’s recital and lecture will focus on “Sonata in A minor BWV 1003,” “Partita in D minor BWV 1004,” “Sonata in C BWV 1005” and “Partita in E BWV 1006.”

“Each sonata, based on but far exceeding the historical model of the church sonata, and each partita, based on but far exceeding the secular chamber dance suite, explores related issues and experiences of life problems and challenges,” Luby wrote.

He said the sonatas depict these issues in the form of church “sermons.”

“In my interpretation, the partitas constitute not mere dance movements as entertainment, but rather the symbolic life-dances that constitute the human experience,” he said.

Luby holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, the Juilliard School of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music. His career extends from baroque and classical music on historical instruments through the newest repertoire for modern violin.

He formerly was on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music and a 1991 Visiting Professor at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is co-founder and co-director of the original instrument Ensemble Courant at UNC, and performs with the resident contemporary music ensemble, “27514,” named for UNC Chapel Hill’s Zip code.

Luby has appeared as soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa of Mexico, National Radio Orchestra of Poland, the Rochester Philharmonic, the North Carolina Symphony, the National Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony.