The ASU School of Music welcomes world-famous violinist Sergui Luca as special guest and soloist at the ASU Chamber Orchestra and Choral Union concert tonight.
The concert will be held at Gammage Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., and is free of charge for everyone.
"I'm very excited about the concert," said Timothy Russell, professor of music and director of ASU's Chamber Orchestra. "Sergui is one of the greatest violinists of the world."
The concert will be in two parts, Russell said.
"The first part of the program is Sergui Luca and the Chamber Orchestra performing Beethoven Violin Concerto in major D," Russell said. "The second part will be the Chamber Orchestra and Choral Union playing a two-part piece called 'Te Deum,' as it is performed by composer John Ritter, and then as it is performed by Franz Joseph Haydn."
Russell said he was very excited about giving audiences a free concert with Luca.
"People will have the opportunity to hear not only one of the best pieces ever created, performed by one of the greatest performers," Russell said.
Although Luca will only be in the Valley for a short time, while he is not performing with the Chamber Orchestra, Luca is teaching two master classes.
From 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Katzen Concert Hall, Luca listened to four graduate student musicians play, after which he personally critiqued and tutored them.
John Machiando, doctorate student of trumpet performance played the Hummel Trumpet Concerto for Luca and said he was very helpful.
"I wanted to do this for my own performance," Machiando said. "He helped a lot with the small things such as articulation differences, note differences and fine-tuning things." Teaching is nothing new to Luca, however.
When he is not performing, he is teaching and has been Artist-In-Residence at Rice University in Houston since 1983.
"He's a visiting artist and distinguished professor at Rice University," Russell said.
Luca is universally known for his establishment of Chamber Music Northwest, his arts organization called Da Camera and his recordings of unaccompanied violin by Bach.
Luca has been performing since the age of 9 where he debuted in Israel with the Haifa Symphony.
"When I was 4, I was hyperactive, so my mom took me to the doctor, and he suggested that I take up a hobby," Luca said. "She bought me a violin."
Reach the reporter at nicole.girard@asu.edu.
