Award-winning violinist to perform at NWC

Award-winning violinist Jessica Mathaes, the youngest concertmaster in the 99-year history of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, will present a guest recital in Northwestern College’s Christ Chapel at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 16.

The event is sponsored by Northwestern and the Orange City Arts Council. Advance tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students, although one student will be admitted free with each paying adult. Tickets may be purchased at Northwestern’s music department, the Orange City Arts Council, Town Hall, Orange City banks and the Dove Christian Book Store in Orange City. Cost at the door is $6 for adults and $4 for students. All NWC faculty and staff and their families will be admitted free with their ID card.

A Texas resident, Mathaes is the granddaughter of Orange City residents Paul and Pat Muyskens. Paul Muyskens worked at Northwestern from 1960 to 1990, including roles as director of facilities and vice president for financial affairs.

“I am so thrilled to be performing in Orange City,” says Mathaes. “Northwestern has been a central part of my family’s history, and it is wonderful for me to have the opportunity to perform there. I am so glad that my grandparents will be able to hear my recital.”

Critics have hailed Mathaes’ “vivacious playing that’s both technically superb and emotionally engaging,” “quicksilver bowing” and “keenly expressed emotion.” She has appeared with orchestras throughout Europe and the United States, including the San Antonio Symphony, the Houston Ballet and the Des Moines Metro Opera. Her debut solo CD, Suites and Sweets, was released on the Centaur label in 2009.

The inaugural winner of the Classical Artists Development Foundation fellowship, Mathaes made her recital debut at age six and her orchestral solo debut in Omaha, Neb., when she was 16. Equally at home on the violin and the viola, she earned performance degrees in both instruments at Rice University.

Mathaes performs on a violin crafted in 1807 by Johannes Cuypers, who is known as the Dutch Stradivarius. Accompanied by pianist Colette Valentine, Mathaes will present Suite for Violin and Piano by Henry Cowell, Suite from Much Ado About Nothing by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Concert Variations by Pierre Jalbert and Sonata in A major by César Franck.

Sioux City Journal article, 4/2/10