VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Music in the Galleries: A Circle of Song and Sound, Saturday, February 12, 2011, at 2:30 pm, in Gallery 220 (Second Floor, Audrey Jones Beck Building).

Join tenor Martin Petzold and guitarist Martin Hoepfner from Houston´s sister city, Leipzig, Germany, for an informal gallery performance of 19th century German folk songs and guitar solos. Petzold, a soloist with the Leipzig Opera, and Hoepfner, a graduate music teacher at the Leipzig music school Johann Sebastian Bach, have performed together since 2007.

"Our forefathers passionately sang songs in a family circle or in a circle of friends. We want to share our pleasure in singing and playing these fascinating old German folk songs with you. Feel free to hum along."

As counterpoint to the folk songs, Hoepfner plays a selection of virtuoso guitar solos and improvisations from 19th and 20th century composers including Leo Brouwer, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jacques Ibert, Manuel de Falla, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Siegfried Behrend.

Dr. Helga K. Aurisch, Curator of European Art at the MFAH, will briefly describe how the musical selections are echoed in the museum´s collection.

Program is free with general museum admission.  Campstools provided for seating, supply limited.

This program is generously sponsored by the  Houston-Leipzig Sister City Association, Houston Saengerbund, the German American Chamber of Commerce and the Consulate of Germany in Houston.

Above: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, detail of Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld, 1861, Oil on canvas, the MFAH, Museum purchase with funds provided by the Agnes Cullen Arnold Endowment Fund, 87.190