Electro-Acoustic Violist Martha Mooke to Perform in FSU Guest Artist Series Concert

Frostburg State University’s Department of Music will host a Guest Artist Series concert by electro-acoustic violist Martha Mooke on Friday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pealer Recital Hall of FSU’s Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center. The recital is free and open to the public.

Mooke, who is also a composer, producer and educator, will perform a concert of her viola music, featuring FSU’s Wind Ensemble, String Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble and FSU’s choirs. She will also host clinics for FSU music students, as well as students in Allegany County Public Schools.

Acclaimed for her electrifying performances and compositions, Mooke transcends musical boundaries, enhancing her classical training and expertise with extended techniques, digital effects processing and improvisation. A Yamaha Artist and leading clinician on electric and progressive string playing, she has toured with Barbra Streisand, Peter Gabriel and Star Wars in Concert and has performed with Elton John, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Tony Bennett, Bon Jovi, Patti Smith and many others. Mooke is also the founder and artistic director of the Scorchio Quartet featured on David Bowie’s “Heathen” CD.

Mooke has received awards from ASCAP, Meet the Composer, Arts International and Fellowships at the MacDowell Colony. She has been commissioned by Symphony Space, Tribeca New Music Festival, Agosto Foundation (Prague), Percussion Plus Project, Musicians Accord and others. Her musical arrangements have been performed by country music star Sturgill Simpson, Iggy Pop, Sharon Jones and Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal. Her catalog includes solo, chamber, symphonic band and orchestra works as well as multimedia, film, theater and ballet scores. Mooke’s genre-defying recordings, “Enharmonic Vision” and Bowing’s “Cafe Mars” with guitarist Randolph Hudson III, have attracted wide critical acclaim. Her latest CD is “No Ordinary Window.”

For more information, contact Shannon Shaker at 301-687-7452 or band@frostburg.edu.