Flutist Mario Caroli performs Salvatore Sciarrino's "L'opera per flauto" at UB this weekend.

As spring in Buffalo heats up, a whirlwind of activity is taking place at the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21^st Century Music – next week on April 23^rd and 24^th the Talujon Precussion Ensemble will be in residency for a composer workshop and concert, and on Wednesday, April 25^th, Augusta Read Thomas will visit to present her latest work and give a master class to student composers. This weekend will kick off the flurry of music with two concerts presented by the renowned Italian flutist Mario Caroli.

Mario Caroli
photo by Piero Colucci

This Friday at 4:00 p.m., at the UB Center for the Arts, in the Lightwell Gallery, Mario Caroli will present a concert of Salvatore Sciarrino’s L’opera per flauto, a crafted collection of Sciarinno’s works for solo flute. Friday’s concert will comprise the first part of the collection, and will be followed up by part two on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., in Baird Recital Hall. Both concerts will be free and open to the public.

Mario Caroli has established an incredible reputation for himself as one of the world's most virtuosic contemporary flutists. The American Record Guide has remarked that, “Mario Caroli has nearly superhuman skill, paired with extraordinary musical intelligence,” and the New York Times has given him glowing reviews, stating about one of his recent performances, that, “he made a sound you wanted to drink in.” Mario Caroli tours incessantly and performs regularly in some of the greatest concert halls in the world, including the Philharmonic Halls of Berlin and Cologne, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Opéra Garnier in Paris, the New York Lincoln Centre, Suntory Hall, Oji Hall and Opera City House of Tokyo, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Bruxelles. Mario has given stellar performances with the Slee Sinfonietta in the past, and all of us at the Center are thrilled to welcome him back to UB. 

Enjoy a small audio appetizer to prepare for this weekend’s flute feast with a video below of Mario Caroli performing Salvatore Sciarrino’s Canzone di ringraziamento at the 2009 International New Music Week Festival in Bucharest.