By Mike Greife,
March 29, 2018
WARRENSBURG, MO – The University of Central Missouri Department of Music will host
brothers and UCM alumni David and Eric Halen in an Alumni Celebration Concert at 7
p.m. Friday, April 13, in Hart Recital Hall.
The sons of the late Walter Halen, professor emeritus of music, and Thalia Halen,
David and Eric were raised in Warrensburg and earned music degrees at UCM before embarking
on careers as concertmasters of two of the world’s most prestigious symphonies. David
is concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony, and Eric is co-concertmaster of the Houston
Symphony. The concert will be the first joint performance by the Halen brothers in
decades.
The same year David Halen received a master’s degree from the University of Illinois
at Champaign-Urbana, he won the Music Teachers national Association Competition and
was granted a Fulbright Scholarship for study in Germany. After serving as the assistant
concertmaster with the Houston Symphony, he joined the St. Louis Symphony in 1991
and was named concertmaster in 1995. He has soloed with the Houston, San Francisco
and West German Radio (Cologne) symphonies.
In 2007 David was appointed Distinguished Visiting Artist at Yale University and at
the new Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
In the fall of 2012, Halen joined the string faculty of the University of Michigan.
As cofounder and artistic director of the Innsbrook Institute, David coordinates a
weeklong festival in June of exciting musical performances and an enclave for aspiring
artists. In August, he is artistic director of the Missouri River Festival of the
Arts in Boonville, Mo.
Eric Halen received a master's degree from the University of Illinois. At age 23 he
became artist and teacher of violin at Texas Christian University and later joined
the faculty of Rice University. He joined the Houston Symphony in 1987, assuming the
position of associate concertmaster and currently as co-concertmaster.
As a chamber musician, Eric has collaborated with many pre-eminent artists, including
violinist Sergiu Luca, cellists Gary Hoffman and Lynn Harrell, and pianists Christoph
Eschenbach and John Kimura Parker.
He has performed in major concert halls and music festivals throughout the United
States and abroad, including Carnegie Hall with soprano Barbara Bonney and conductor
Hans Graf, the Aspen Music Festival, the Pacific
Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and Cascade Head Festival in Oregon. His discography
includes recordings for Koch International, for whom he has recorded Messiaen's “Quartet
for the End of Time” and Alban Berg's “Adagio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano” from
the Chamber Concerto.
A reception will follow the concert in the social hall adjacent to the Hart Recital
Hall.
The concert is free and open to the public, although ticketing is required to assure
adequate seating. Tickets are available online at ucmo.edu/music/halen, or by calling
the Department of Music at 660-543-4530. Funding for the concert has been provided
in part by a grant from the Missouri Arts Council, with sponsorship by the Department
of Music, the Warrensburg Friends of Music, and the UCM Alumni Foundation.
