UAB graduate and award-winning composer Eric Mobley and Gospel Choir Director Reginald Jackson, Ph.D., will perform works in response to Kwame Brathwaite’s photography exhibition at UAB’s Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts.Experience live music surrounded by art at Chamber Music @ AEIVA, Thursday, March 9, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Chamber Music @ AEIVA is a free concert series that connects music with the art on display at UAB’s Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts. The series, co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music and AEIVA, presents the finest chamber music in an engaging, inviting environment. A reception will be at 5:30 p.m., followed by the concert at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, inside AEIVA, located at 1221 10th Ave. South.
The music is inspired by the current AEIVA exhibition “Black is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite.” The program is curated by Professor of Voice and Associate Dean of the UAB Honors College Kristine Hurst-Wajszczuk, DMA. It will feature UAB graduate Eric Mobley and UAB Gospel Choir Director Reginald Jackson, Ph.D.
Mobley will perform an original work, “Kingdom of Dreams,” a suite for piano quintet focused on themes and emotions of hope, ambition and regality. Mobley will perform on piano and will be joined by Christin H.T. Gill and Jordan Kirchner Ford, violin; and Michelle Cheng, cello. Mobley will also perform works by Rachmaninoff and Duke Ellington, two of his biggest influences as a composer.
An engineer by day and a composer by night, Mobley graduated in 2017 from UAB with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a minor in music technology. While at UAB, Mobley was in the Honors College University Honors Program and studied piano under Yakov Kasman, DMA, and Tatiana Kasman, both instrumental in encouraging his pursuit of composition and providing him with opportunities to present his work. Primarily a jazz composer and pianist before his studies, he found a passion for classical music was awakened while at UAB. He won first prize in the Alabama Music Teachers Association Solo Piano Performance Competition in 2015 and first prize in the 2020 National Federation of Music Clubs Piano Solo Composition Competition. He went on to get a master’s degree in information engineering and management from the UAB School of Engineering in 2019. Mobley has written music for films and is president of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance, an organization dedicated to promoting the works of local Alabama composers.
Jackson’s performance will include a soulful mix of jazz, blues and contemporary R&B, reflecting the rich heritage of African American music, he says. Jackson, who is accomplished on several instruments, will perform on saxophone and piano. He is an educator and music theorist with an emphasis on creating instructional material for playing R&B, gospel and contemporary styles by ear. His saxophone and keyboard performances feature improvisational ingenuity that weave tones of smooth jazz and R&B with the gritty, soulful sounds of gospel fused with classical overtones.
Chamber Music @ AEIVA was founded in 2015 by adjunct music faculty member Laura Usiskin, DMA.