“Mozart: A Birthday Celebration Performance,” January 25

Saturday, January 25, 6 p.m.

Sound Conservatory, 504 17th Street, Moline IL

Held in honor of his birth on January 27, 1756, Moline's Sound Conservatory will, 269 years later, host a special anniversary event in January 25's Mozart: A Birthday Celebration Performance, an unforgettable evening filled with breathtaking performances by violinist Archana Wagle, cellist Alex Gilson, clarinetist Rob Miller, pianist Andrzej Kozlowski, and baritone Nathan Windt.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period., and despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works of virtually every genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as among the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his output admired for what Grove Music Online called its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture."

Born in Salzburg, then in the Holy Roman Empire and currently in Austria, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. His father took him on a grand tour of Europe and then three trips to Italy. At 17, he was a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position.

While visiting Vienna in 1781, Mozart was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He stayed in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years there, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas. His Requiem was largely unfinished by the time of his 1791 death at the age of 35, the circumstances of which are uncertain and much mythologized, including in the Tony-winning play and Oscar-winning movie Amadeus.

Mozart's best-admired work is in opera, piano concerto, piano sonata, symphony, string quartet, and string quintet. He also, however, wrote many violin sonatas, and other forms of chamber music, violin concertos, and other concertos for one or more solo instruments, masses, and other religious music, organ music, masonic music, and numerous dances, marches, divertimentos, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment. His most highly regarded operas, meanwhile, include The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan tuttee.

The repertoire for the Sound Conservatory's Mozart: A Birthday Celebration Performance will feature: Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, K. 525 performed by Wagle and Gilson; Trio in E-flat “Kegelstatt,” KV. 498 by Miller, Gilson, and Kozlowski; Three Art Songs by Kozlowski and Windt; and Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622 by Kozlowski and Miller.

The concert event will take place in Moline on January 25, admission to the 6 p.m. performance is $12-30, and more information and tickets are available by visiting SoundConservatory.com.