STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State University faculty members Dr. Leslie Spotz and Ivo Ivanov will be in concert at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 17, in the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center in Stephenville.
The duo will present Beethoven’s “Sonata in D major, Op. 12, No. 1,” Claude Debussey’s “Sonata” and Igor Stravinsky’s “Suite Italienne.”
Ivanov, an adjunct strings professor and violinist, has been a full-time member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 1997. He was born in Rousse, Bulgaria, where he began to study violin at the age of 6 with Anelia Popova. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the State Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he studied violin with Georgi Badev, chamber music with Vladimir Avramov and orchestral studies with Alipi Naydenov.
After graduation, he joined the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra where he worked for two consecutive seasons before moving to the United States. He studied at Southern Methodist University with the legendary concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Emanuel Borok, earning his master’s degree in violin performance. He also studied in a DMA program at the University of Houston with Fredell Lack.
While a member of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Ivanov toured and performed in concert halls throughout Europe such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Hall, the City Halls of Leeds, Bristol, and Nottingham, in the United Kingdom, Prinzregententheater in Munich, and in Teatro dei Rinnovati in Siena, Italy, where he took part in the 1990-94 editions of “Settimana Musicale Senese.”
He has appeared in Potsdam, Germany, Athens, Greece, and Ravello, Italy. In 1980, he participated in a governmental cultural exchange delegation, including solo performances in Pyongyang, North Korea.
He also participated in the January 2008 Carnegie Hall Tour in New York City and the 2018 Shift Festival at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington, D.C., with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
In his solo appearances, he has performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Double Violin Concerto” and Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto” with Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven’s “Violin Concerto” with the State Academy Symphony Orchestra in Sofia and Haydn’s “Sinfonia Concertante” at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion in Houston.
He has been on the music faculty of Tarrant County College since 2016 and joined the music faculty of Tarleton State as an adjunct violin professor in fall 2022.
Dr. Spotz, a piano professor and an award-winning concert pianist, has enjoyed an international performing career spanning four continents and five decades, including solo performances in Moscow at Tchaikovsky Hall of Moscow University, Southbank Centre of London, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington, D.C., the famed Academy of Music in Philadelphia, her highly acclaimed tours of Germany, concerts in Italy at the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute, solo recitals in Taiwan and Brazil, and her performance at the inaugural opening of Philadelphia’s magnificent performance venue, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
Recent seasons include solo recitals in Rio de Janeiro and Il Encontro Internacional de Pianistas de Brazil. She has performed solo recitals in New York City’s Tenri Cultural Institute, including an all-Chopin Bicentennial recital. She returned to Italy for performances at the Conservatorio di Milano and the Ambrosianeum Foundation, also performing in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Hailed by the prestigious Süddeutsche Zeitung of Munich, her Beethoven was described as: “Stripped of veneer, revealing all the edges and corners, Spotz earnestly confronted Beethoven’s tempi and dynamic indications, leaving mediocrity and shallow beauty behind and bringing out truth. In all, a concert of the highest critical standard, further proof of the high carat quality of this series.”
She has performed extensively throughout the U.S. from coast to coast. Concert highlights include her performance as soloist with the Fort Worth Symphony and her performances of twenty Beethoven sonatas at Rutgers University.
Receiving a full scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music, Dr. Spotz studied for five years with the legendary Mieczyslaw Horszowski. She completed her doctorate at Rutgers in 2002. She has served as the International Piano Performance Examination Committee’s (IPPEC) artistic coordinator of piano examiners since 2016 and was recently named the Chair of IPPEC.
Admission to the concert in Stephenville is free.
A founding member of The Texas A&M System, Tarleton State University is breaking records — in enrollment, research, scholarship, athletics, philanthropy and engagement — while transforming the lives of approximately 18,000 students in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Bryan and online. For 125 years, Tarleton State has been committed to accessible higher education opportunities for all while helping students grow academically, socially and professionally through programs that emphasize real world learning and address regional, state and national needs.