As a musician and teacher, Laurie Smukler has traveled across the country, educating students at conservatories and music schools such as the University of Michigan, Peabody Conservatory in Maryland and the University of Tennessee at Memphis.
Soon, she will bring her musical talents to Orono, where she’ll perform on violin with pianist Robert McDonald for an all-Bartok program at 3 p.m. Feb. 7 at the University of Maine’s Minsky Recital Hall. The program will include Bela Bartok’s Rhapsody No.1 for violin and piano, Deuxieme Sonata for violin and piano and Premiere Sonata for violin and piano.
It is their first stop for a multiple-show schedule that will culminate in a New York performance.
Smukler, who was born in Ohio, lives in New York and is on the faculty of the prestigious music school The Juilliard School. She has taught at Purchase College Conservatory of Music and Bard College Conservatory of Music, both in New York. But for years she has worked in Maine, returning to Blue Hill each summer to teach at Kneisel Hall.
“There’s very little extraneous, competitive, artificial influence [at Kneisel Hall],” Smukler said. “It’s about creating music.”
The environment and the people have kept her invested in coming back to the state every year to teach.
“They’re real musicians who are honest with the music and honest with themselves and are trying to achieve real art,” she said.
But that wasn’t her first experience with Maine.
“My mother was a painter in galleries in New York. … My family came up and spent 10 days on Deer Isle when I was 13 or 14 and spent time with painter Dan Hodermarsky,” Smukler said. “We swam in the lakes amongst the water lilies, and that began my love affair with Maine.”
For both Smukler and McDonald, the Maine performance will be a welcome retreat. McDonald has played in Portland, with musicians such as Isaac Stern, and at Blue Hill’s Kneisel Hall. Smukler said she has grown as a musician and teacher since her time began in 1997.
Bartok’s pieces were written in the 1920s, but both Smukler and McDonald said that they’re still accessible and tap into emotions as applicable today as they were almost 100 years ago.
The two sonatas were written for a woman named Jelly d’Aranyi who Bartok was quite fond of. His pieces are “fiery,” as Smukler described it, and “fantastical,” in McDonald’s words.
“It’s rather important [audiences] understand that the works are not so conventional — they have moments of great beauty, and the sheer originality in the voice of these pieces is still so striking to this day,” McDonald said.
Audiences can expect a different chamber music experience that will surprise at every turn, according to McDonald. At times, the piano and violin may seem to spar with one another.
“When Bartok puts the two together they often sound like they’re going off in their own worlds, even though the ensemble demands are very specific,” McDonald said.
Smukler and McDonald plan to speak about the music beforehand to prepare listeners for the experience.
“The point is sharing. We want to share our work and discover these pieces with the audience,” Smukler said.
As for their visit to Maine, both Smukler and McDonald are happy to be coming back.
“I have a love affair with Maine,” Smukler said. “It’s a second home by this time.”
Tickets for the performance are $28 for adults and $8 for students, and they can be purchased on the Collins Center for the Arts website or by calling 581-1755.