Renowned and innovative electric six-string violinist Rudolf Haken will perform a program ranging from Metallica to Sergei Prokofiev to a faculty member’s original composition during a wide-spanning concert at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, at SUNY Oswego.

The concert, in the university’s Sheldon Hall ballroom, is part of the SUNY Oswego’s Ke-Nekt’ Chamber Music Series, presented by the Music Department and ARTSwego.

A professor of electric strings and viola at the University of Illinois, Haken is a longtime friend and collaborator of SUNY Oswego music professor Robert Auler, and the pair will perform together for the concert. 

Their connection ranges back to the 1980s when they were both “precocious young musicians” on the scene of Champaign, Illinois, Auler noted, “but it was his absolutely hilarious, generous, off-the-wall personality that has endeared him to me as a close, close friend over these 40 years.”

“Rudolf (and I) are both in love with classical music while at the same time being completely interested and curious about other musical forms,” Auler said. “While I started to pursue a second passion here at Oswego in the jazz area, Rudolf was building out his electric strings chops -- sound design, transcription of rock/pop tunes, beginning a program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and performing globally as something of a classical crossover artist.”

This crossover appeal is shown in the program planned for Oswego, which will include Haken’s arrangements of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and “Master of Puppets”; Eddie van Halen’s “Eruption”; “Voices from Chauvet,” an original composition by SUNY Oswego music faculty member Paul Leary; Haken’s original “Triathlon”; Quincy Jones’ “The Streetbeater” (also known as the theme song for “Sanford & Son”); Sergei Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 94a; and Bud Powell’s “Tempus Fugit.”

“We pioneered this particular project at Illinois last month, and it completely exceeded our expectations –- from Metallica to Bud Powell to Prokofiev,” Auler said. “I truly believe we have been able to break new ground.”

Melding styles

Haken is internationally renowned for his creative melding of disparate musical styles and genres. He concertizes and teaches regularly on four continents, frequently performing his own concertos on his six-string Wood Viper electric and five-string Rivinus Pellegrina acoustic violas.

Haken’s performances and compositions, including numerous commissioned works, have met with success both in live performances and recordings. In September 2012, violinist Rachel Barton Pine premiered Haken’s solo violin work “Faust” at Chicago’s Beethoven Festival. Pine had commissioned this work from Haken as part of an effort to bring heavy metal influence into solo acoustic violin music.

A Centaur CD of concertos composed by Haken was named a 2007 “Critics’ Choice” by American Record Guide. In 2004, WTTW-Chicago produced a video featuring Haken performing his transcriptions of Van Halen and Metallica on a Jensen five-string electric viola, later shown frequently in passenger areas at O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago. Haken's compositions have been featured at conventions of the International Double Reed Society, North American Saxophone Alliance and International Trumpet Guild, among other venues.

Haken started his career as a child prodigy. At the age of 10, he conducted his first orchestral works at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (University of Illinois) with the encouragement of professor Charles DeLaney. As a child, Haken appeared frequently in the U.S. and Europe as a composer, conductor, soloist and chamber musician.

The continued collaboration with Auler since their early years has continued to bear fruit musically and creatively.

“One interesting facet is how well this project intersects with what we have been up to in the Oswego Music Department, with our recent Collage concert featuring performers from the classical, jazz, singer-songwriter, rock and EDM (electronic dance music) worlds,” Auler said.

Tickets are free for SUNY Oswego students, $5 for non-SUNY Oswego students, $12 for faculty/staff/alumni and $15 for the general public, available via tickets.oswego.edu or any campus box office.

For more information on performing and visual arts events on the SUNY Oswego campus, visit the ARTSwego website.

“We really can't wait to share this project with the campus and the community,” Auler said.