Juneau Piano Series: A Medieval Night with Paul Krejci

Dr. Paul Krejci is an independent scholar, piano teacher, and musician. Born and raised in Fairbanks, he studied classical piano with Dr. James Johnson and Karen Johnson. Paul has performed as a solo and collaborative pianist and keyboardist throughout Alaska as
well as in Italy, Austria, Japan, China, and Australia. A former term professor and adjunct instructor at UAF, he taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in music and the humanities. Paul has also worked for many years in the community as a piano accompanist for high school and university students. He devotes his scholarly time to music history projects covering a diverse array of topics such as the music of commercial whalers and explorers in the polar regions, the music of northern indigenous peoples and more recent settlers of Alaska and neighboring regions, as well as lecture
performances of ragtime and medieval keyboard works. Paul is also active as a keyboardist, organist, amateur accordionist, and studio musician. He has performed, composed, and arranged for local bands in various styles, including pop, rock, jazz, funk, disco, calypso, classical, and world music. Paul has also composed, arranged, and
produced music for television, film, and museum exhibits. He was an Alaska Public Radio Network Song of the Year Winner in the Instrumental Category in 2004. Finally, he volunteers his time serving as Board Vice President and Artist Selection Chair for the Fairbanks Concert Association. He is currently researching and writing an historical account of the arts organization’s first 75 years with a planned book release this fall.

About the program, Paul has written this: "Why perform medieval keyboard music? Like the culture of the Middle Ages, often
depicted in popular forms of entertainment today, it’s unusual and intriguing, moving and
bizarre, beautiful and thought-provoking. It offers a unique window into a world that is over five
centuries old. Music is the closest thing we have to a time machine. These keyboard pieces,
played on a modern piano, allow one to engage and reflect on a time and place very different
from, yet also unexpectedly similar to our own. For example, some of the selections are
contemporary with the Black Plague, a world-shattering pandemic that killed tens of millions of
people and disrupted political, social, religious, and economic systems. The music served then as
it does today as a salve and as a mirror to human suffering. It expresses the joys and sorrows of
life often via song- and dance-based models. It also conveys the meaning of love, both of the
secular and sacred kind. Finally, medieval keyboard music shows how sound and silence can be
organized in a totally different way, evoking an unexpected soundscape that is, paradoxically,
both old and new."

 

June 9th, 7pm, at the JACC

General Admission $25
Senior Admission $20
Student Admission $10