Guests of the January 2016
Uncertainty Quantification Applications Workshop (UQAW) had to check
whether they were truly at a science and technology university in
Saudi Arabia, or had perhaps taken a wrong turn en route to the
poster session and reception in the KAUST University Library on the
evening of 6 January.
Director Raul Tempone
invited them, drinks and hors d’ouvres
in hand, to a piano at the entrance to the poster atrium, where
Electrical Engineering PhD candidate Itsikiantsoa Randrianantenaina,
from Madagascar, and Applied Mathematics Professor David Keyes, from
New York City, were waiting to deliver a program of six arias and art
songs spanning three centuries of music, from operas of Scarlatti and
Handel, through Mozart and Schumann, to Catalani and the obscure 20th
century American composer Alexander MacFadyen.
Both Tsiky, who studied
voice in Paris, and David, who studied piano in Boston, a generation
apart, had contemplated music as career, but ended up under parental
and peer influences going into science. Neither expected to be
performing as regularly as they have been since arriving at KAUST,
where the community must make its own music and both were delighted
to assemble a program from recent KAUST appearances to entertain
SRIUQ’s guests from around the world.
“Tsiky has control over
an incredible range of pitch and volume of delivery, and command of
several languages,” remarked Keyes. “It is amusing to watch the
surprise of her audiences when this petite
chanteuse leans into an aria.”
Randrianantenanina, in turn, feels supported for each musical gesture
by Keyes. “David has 35 years of experience as an accompanist for
his violist wife [KAUST Arts Office Coordinator Wendy Keyes], so his
ensemble for a singer is instinctive.”
The pair endeavors to find
time outside of academic and research deadlines to perform one new
song during each month that classes are in session, at the monthly
“Sunset Concerts” in the Library where UQAW met, or occasionally
in KAUST’s grand auditorium, which is equipped with a worthy
concert grand piano. They appreciated the attention of the symposium
participants before getting to the business of their posters
and hope that each went
home with a broader picture of KAUST and of Saudi Arabia, and some
new musical leads to follow up in youtube.
V’adoro
pupille Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
(from
Giulio Cesare)
Se
Florindo è
fedele Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
(from
La donna ancora è
fedele)
An
Chloë
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart (1756-1791)
Du
ring an meinem Finger Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
(from
Frauenliebe und leben)
Ebben?
Ne andrò lontana Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893)
(from
La Wally)
Why
I love you Alexander MacFadyen (1880-1936)
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