TRADITION TRANSFORMED: RACHMANINOFF, BRITTEN & BAIK at Hahn Hall

Beloved folk songs. A world premiere. A secret melody revealed.

Acclaimed violist Richard O’Neill and pianist-composer August Baik open the Mariposa Series with a vivid, deeply personal program about heritage, memory, and the music that lives beneath the surface. Baik’s new work draws on Korean folk songs, while Britten’s haunting Lachrymae slowly reveals a hidden song by John Dowland. Rzewski’s “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues” transforms a folk song made famous by Pete Seeger and transforms it into a virtuosic tour de force.

The evening culminates in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s sweeping Sonata in G Minor, arranged for viola by O’Neill — a passionate, cinematic work that has shaped both artists’ lives. For Baik, it was the first major duo sonata he studied; for O’Neill, it has remained a lifelong companion since learning it during a formative and deeply emotional summer at the Music Academy under legendary mentor Donald McInnes. Returning to the sonata over the years has revealed new layers of meaning and connection, reminding both musicians that while life changes, great music evolves alongside us.

Together, O’Neill and Baik create a powerful journey of discovery and transformation, where old songs become new again.