{"id":9653,"date":"2022-07-29T14:54:46","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T18:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=9653"},"modified":"2023-02-15T10:57:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T15:57:58","slug":"a-musical-love-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2022\/07\/29\/a-musical-love-story\/","title":{"rendered":"A Musical Love Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Music Faculty David Murray and Arikka Gregory Make a Beautiful Duet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes on a hectic day you can find a musical interlude when you enter the Carol A. Carter Recital Hall on the Statesboro Campus. Sometimes you can even see a true love story play out right before your eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was on a late spring afternoon when students attended a faculty recital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students erupted with applause as mezzo-soprano Arikka Gregory, DMA, and pianist David Murray, DMA, took their places on stage. He, at the keyboard and she, standing in the curve of the black Steinway grand piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beautiful music breaks out as Gregory and Murray begin what emerges as fine-tuned musical choreography. It\u2019s almost as if they are joined at the hip<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Love Story<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In reality, they are husband and wife, both at Georgia Southern’s Gretsch School of Music. Murray is professor of piano and heads the piano area and Gregory is professor of voice and heads the vocal area. They have been making music together for nearly 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDavid and I actually met at the new faculty orientation in August of 2007 and it just sort of started out with us occasionally having lunch together as friends, just talking about life as new faculty members,\u201d said Gregory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we went away for the summer we were not married,\u201d said Murray. \u201cWhen we came back in the fall we were married and that was a big surprise for everyone here. We had a party at our home, sort of an \u2018oops, we just got married\u2019 party and everyone from the department came. It was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two accomplished musicians have a partnership that goes further than family life. Gregory and Murray have a relationship that uniquely benefits the vocal and piano areas they lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a very active voice and collaborative piano program with a lot going on,\u201d said Gregory. \u201cWe regularly meet with the faculty together and work as a team to make sure that our students get the best they can from us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solo Careers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But they both have active careers as individual performers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregory has often performed in concert and in operatic roles such as The Mother in the Christmas favorite, \u201cAmahl and the Night Visitors,\u201d and as Lucia in the opera, \u201cCavalleria Rusticana.\u201d But she is most proud of having been the alto soloist in a performance of Mendelssohn\u2019s \u201cElijah,\u201d under the baton of the late great choral conductor and Atlanta Symphony maestro Robert Shaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murray has an extensive recording career as a classical pianist. His most recent release is on the MSR Classics label, C.P.E. Bach\u2019s \u201cW\u00fcrttemberg Sonatas Nos. 4-6.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cC.P.E. Bach was more famous than his father during his lifetime, who you may have heard of, the baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach,\u201d said Murray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that recording is something very rare. Murray plays a note-for-note transcription of the never before published \u201cKeyboard Sonata No. 6 in A minor\u201d by W.F. Bach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout 20 years ago I heard a very old harpsichord recording of a sonata by W.F. Bach, who was J.S. Bach’s oldest son. But there was no score. And I kept waiting and waiting for it to be published because I wanted to play it. I got tired of waiting and I took the old recording and listened to it and just transcribed it note by note. There was room at the end of the W\u00fcrttemberg CD and I played it there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time it took to transcribe the sonata was worthwhile as the piece\u2019s complicated melody and counterpoint is lovely. Critics unanimously consider Murray\u2019s performance stunning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Emotional Performance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Back in the recital hall, the duo lovingly performed \u201cAll You Who Sleep Tonight” by composer Jonathan Dove based on poems by Vikram Seth. The words and music of the piece were appropriate to the feelings engendered by the present-day turmoil of war-torn Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All you who sleep tonight<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far from the ones you love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No hand to left or right<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And emptiness above –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know that you aren’t alone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole world shares your tears,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some for two nights or one,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And some for all their years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students cheered at the conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A timely and perfect ending to a performance by a loving, musical husband and wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u00a0Liz Walker<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music Faculty David Murray and Arikka Gregory Make a Beautiful Duet Sometimes on a hectic day you can find a musical interlude when you enter the Carol A. Carter Recital Hall on the Statesboro Campus. Sometimes you can even see a true love story play out right before your eyes. So it was on a late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[70],"class_list":["post-9653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-fall-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}