The Fine Arts Center at the University of Rhode Island presented the Víquez/Wadley Trio on Thursday, March 28, which performed a number of musical pieces designed for clarinet, bass clarinet, tuba and percussion.
The 89th event of the 2023/2024 URI Music Department season, which had free admission, was a faculty recital. The trio was composed of URI faculty Luis Víquez, the University of South Dakota’s director of percussion studies, Darin Wadley, and Eastman School of Music graduate student Logan Wadley. URI faculty Kyle Forsthoff also appeared as a special guest.
The Trio came to fruition after Víquez spent seven years at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he met and befriended Darin Wadley. Víquez came to URI in 2023, where he has served as the director of orchestral studies and assistant professor of orchestral conducting.
“Having this opportunity to be on the stage [with Darin Wadley] to do a full recital, it just gives me so much joy,” Víquez said. “The last few days I’ve been practicing have almost been therapeutic.”
The event was unique in terms of the structure of the ensemble, according to Víquez. There is not a lot of music that strictly calls for the three instruments provided by the trio. This led to three of the pieces being premiered in front of a live audience for the first time ever. The pieces performed were “Toccata” by Ivy Kocher, “White Gladis” by Paul Lombardi and “Chompin’ at the Bit” by Charles Dibley.
“All three of the premiered pieces are [written by] Vermillion-based composers,” Darin Wadley said. “I told them we need music, one [of the composers] is a student, one is a faculty member and one is a retired faculty member.”
Darin Wadley also arranged three of the pieces played by the trio. “Nola,” “Bethena” and “Triplets” all originally were rag pieces from the early 20th century that he arranged accordingly based on the instruments the group played.
One of the pieces performed, “Folia,” was a Renaissance piece that had been arranged by trio-member Logan Wadley, who is the youngest member of the ensemble and Darin Wadley’s son. He has multiple professional experiences, including performing with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra and the Touch of Brass Quintet. Logan Wadley’s career in music, though, is only beginning.
“Mathematically, I’m going to be finishing my doctorate in about five years,” Logan Wadley said. “I wanna copy what my dad, or what Víquez does. I want to be a collegiate professor. It’s in my blood.”
Logan Wadley mentioned that his family is full of professors: both his grandmother and his uncle also attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
Some upcoming events from the URI Music Department include the Piano Extravaganza, which begins Friday and will contain performances throughout the weekend, and the University Artist Series: Another Level, Record Release Concert on Thursday, April 11 at 8 p.m.
More information can be found at web.uri.edu/music/events/.