Primrose Memorial Concert featuring guest artists Stephen Wyrczynski, viola Aram Arakelyan, piano
7:30 PM | OCT. 1, 2026 | RECITAL HALL | MUSIC BUILDING
Caprice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BORIS MYRONOFF arr. William Primrose
Träume (from Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91) . . . . . . . . . . . . RICHARD WAGNER 1813-1883 arr. William Primrose
Sonata for Viola and Piano, op.15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VLADIMIR KRYUKOV Largo tenebroso Allegro appassionato
1902-1960
— INTERMISSION —
The Rite of Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IGOR STRAVINSKY 1882-1971 arr. Wyrczynski/Arakelyan
Biographies Stephen Wyrczynski, viola Stephen Wyrczynski was recently appointed to the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University as Professor of Viola where he will begin in the 2027–2028 academic year. He has been a Professor of Music since 2010 at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He has been an Artist Faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2006. He was a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 18 years, joining them in 1992. Professor Wyrczynski regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician. He prioritizes faculty-student collaborations. One such partnership, with late violinist Jorja Fleezanis, explored music from the Second Viennese School, in which faculty and students together performed music by Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg. The inaugural concerts took place in a gallery at the Indiana University Art Museum which has a celebrated art collection. Here, the audience was able to consider the relationship of the music to exhibited works by artist Wassily Kandinsky, a personal friend of Schoenberg. Works performed in this series include Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht op. 4, String Quartets No. 1, op. 7; No. 2, op. 10; No. 3, op. 30;No. 4, op. 37; Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte op. 41, and the String Trio op. 45. Also performed were Alban Berg's String Quartet op. 3 & Lyric Suite (1925-26), and Anton Webern’s Bagatelles op. 9. In other chamber music collaborations, he has performed with such artists as Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Pamela Frank, Edgar Meyer, Vladimir Feltsman, Marietta Simpson, and Dawn Upshaw. He has played at many celebrated venues in North America. He has had performances at Le Domaine Forget, QC;
the New Port Music Festival, RI; the Grand Teton Music Festival, WY; Tanglewood, Lenox, MA; Kingston Chamber Music Festival, RI; the Casals Festival, PR; El Paso Pro Musica, TX; and the Apollo Chamber Players, Denver,CO. Professor Wyrczynski considers his teaching a direct result of his own relationship to performing, practicing, and listening. He approaches each student as an individual personality and potential artist. Teaching a student about the great privilege it is to serve the composers of their repertoire is one of the best ways for the students to gain ownership of their musical training. He encourages students to ask probing questions and be musically curious beyond their own instrument. He has his students explore musical context rather than segregating technique from music making. In addition to his residency at the Aspen Music Festival and School, he participates annually as an instructor at the Karen Tuttle Viola Workshop. He has taught at the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida, and Mannes School of Music in New York where he led quarterly coachings in orchestral repertoire. He has also taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, the National Orchestral Institute, and the New York State Summer School for Orchestral Studies. In 1983, he began viola studies with Kim Kashkashian and later with Karen Tuttle at the Peabody Conservatory where he became her teaching assistant. He went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in 1988 from Juilliard where he continued to be her assistant. He continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale, then Principal Violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He earned a diploma there in 1991.
Aram Arakelyan, piano Aram Arakelyan is a versatile pianist and pedagogue with a passion for collaborative music making. He has earned a reputation for excellence, appearing with artists in venues across the globe. A trusted collaborator, he has been a staff member at the Festival Internacional de Flauta y Maderas in Mexico, the International Horn Symposium, the Primrose International Viola Competition, the Meadowmount School of Music and more. He has taught at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he assisted in the establishment of the collaborative piano degree program, and is currently on faculty at the University of North Texas College of Music. Recent projects include a transcription of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” for viola and piano, available at Songburd Music, along with a forthcoming Azica Records album with violist Stephen Wyrkzynski. Other recordings include “Viola Music of Latin America” with violist Ed Gazouleas on the Naxos/IU Music label, and “Reflections of May,” an album of German lieder transcriptions with hornist Layne Anspach. Arakelyan holds degrees from the University of Utah, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California, where he was a recipient of the Gwendolyn Koldofsky Fellowship. He is a member of the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society.
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