Uzur Richter Duo performs Nov. 9

The Hayes School of Music will present a free guest recital by cellist Viktor Uzur and guitarist Brad Richter on Friday, Nov. 9, at 6 p.m. in the Broyhill Music Center Recital Hall.

The duo’s wide-ranging program will include virtuosic and inventive arrangements of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee,” along with original works and arrangements of Macedonian and Serbian folk songs.

Uzur and Richter are each classical musicians with successful international solo careers and intensive training from two of the world’s most lauded musical institutions: The Moscow Conservatory and The Royal College of Music, respectively.

Their musical interests and abilities, however, are far from limited to classical music. In their teens and 20s, while developing into classical virtuosi, they cut their teeth in rock bands – Uzur as an electric guitarist and Richter as a guitarist and singer. They also delved into folk and world music but eventually put those interests aside as they pursued their classical concert careers.

The Richter Uzur Duo may be unique in the way in which it combines classical, rock and folk music and themes into truly original new compositions, as well as in the way in which they collaborate.

Because they live almost 1,000 miles apart, they do a majority of their composing over phone and Internet and write parts separately, combining and redeveloping them while on concert tours together.

According to concert organizers, “The fun and friendship Viktor and Brad share in this partnership are obvious on stage and in their music.”