On March 14, 1904, famous composer and conductor Richard Strauss, his wife Pauline and the Pittsburgh Orchestra, conducted by Victor Herbert, visited West Virginia University to give afternoon and evening concerts. For one hundred years, this event has continued to be one of the most memorable moments in the history of the University.

During the month of March, the WVU College of Creative Arts will commemorate the anniversary of this historic visit with a lecture by Professor of Music History Christopher Wilkinson, as well as a recital by guest artist Andrea Huber, soprano, accompanied by pianist Robert Thieme, who is WVU professor of music and director of the opera program.

Wilkinson’s lecture, titledRichard Strauss at West Virginia University: A Lecture Celebrating the Centenary of His Visit,will take place Monday, March 8, at 8:15 p.m. in the CAC ’s Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (Room 200A). Assisting him will be Music Professors Laura Kobayashi, Harold Levin and William Skidmore, along with members of the WVU Graduate String Quartet.

In the past, Wilkinson has written detailed accounts of the Strauss visit for several publications, including The Dominion Post’s Panorama magazine and the WVU Alumni Magazine.

Soprano Andrea Huber will perform a guest artist/faculty recital with Thieme Wednesday, March 10, at 8:15 p.m., also in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall. This performance will recreate the program of Strauss’s art songs which he and his wife, Pauline de Ahna Strauss, the noted soprano, performed on the afternoon of March 14, 1904.

A leading soprano in both opera and operetta, Huber studied vocal performance at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, and in Dallas, where she was a finalist at the Dealey Awards in 1983 and 1985. She had previously won the Irene Ryan National Acting Award at the Kennedy Center while earning a BFA in Music Theatre at Illinois Wesleyan University. From 1985-1992 she was engaged at the opera house of Krefeld-Monchengladbach. Since becoming freelance in 1992, she has been a favorite in European opera houses. She has sung in Bern, Bergen, Capetown, Catania, as well as in the United States, and regularly performs at summer music festivals in Germany.

Reviewers have praised her voice as well as her fascinating stage presence. One German reviewer saidthe Lieder (art songs) of Richard Strauss seem to fit this American soprano like a glove.

Strauss was a master of the symphonic or tone poem and opera and is also known as one of the great composers of art songs. He was greatly influenced by Richard Wagner and was among the most important composers to carry on the Wagnerian opera tradition. Among his best-known operas areSalomeandDer Rosenkavalier.

Strauss’s visit to WVU was arranged by Sidney Lloyd Wrightson, then Dean of the School of Music. In order to make this visit a success, Wrightson raised private funds and built an audience through a variety of performances and public relations activities,Wilkinson said.

Not only did Strauss come to Morgantown, so too did his wife, the soprano Pauline de Ahna Strauss. Also present was the Pittsburgh Orchestra (forerunner to the Pittsburgh Symphony) under its conductor Victor Herbert.

There were two performances of Strauss’s music on March 14, 1904. In the afternoon, Pauline, accompanied by her husband at the piano, performed sixteen of his art songs. That evening, he conducted the Pittsburgh Orchestra in two of his tone poems. Herbert conducted works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner.

Wilkinson notes that what is most remarkable is that WVU was the only academic institution at which Richard Strauss performed and conducted his music during his first American tour.

That it happened at all was due entirely to the ambition of the Dean of the School of Music, who regarded Strauss as the greatest living composer of classical music,Wilkinson said.

A unique photo of the Strauss visit still exists in the WVU archives and is often seen in University publications and photo exhibitions. In the photo, Strauss and Herbert join Dean Wrightson in front of the Pittsburgh Orchestra at the conclusion of the concert in Commencement Hall. Behind them stands the magnificent three-manual pipe organ that was installed in the auditorium in 1898. Commencement Hall, after 1940 known as Reynolds Hall, was demolished in the mid-1960s and the Mountainlair built on the site.

Wilkinson has learned from a scholar in Germany that this photo is remarkable, in part, because it shows Strauss early in his career as a conductor.

For more information about the lecture and recital, contact the WVU College of Creative Arts at (304) 293-4841 ext. 3108