Live classical music returns to the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Wieden stage with a special recital concert by the students of Dr. Anatole Wieck, Professor of Upper Strings at the University of Maine in Orono, at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 14.

Dr. Wieck’s students will perform their year-end recital, and Dr. Wieck will play a collaborative piece with local musician Carol Ayoob during this very special performance done in partnership with the two UMaine campuses.

Dr. Wieck and Ayoob will be playing a collaborative piece called “sticks and stones and rubber tones.” This “fluxus” improvisational piece involves Ayoob creating a score on stage with sticks and stones and rubber tire pieces that she has collected from U.S. Interstate 95. Dr. Wieck will play the score as Ayoob creates it.

Dr. Wieck has taught upper strings at the University of Maine since 1986 and conducts the University of Maine Chamber Orchestra. As an accomplished violinist, violist and conductor, he has performed, taught, and conducted in Europe, North America and South America and has participated in chamber music festivals all around the globe.

Born in Latvia, Dr. Wieck received his early musical training in Riga and Moscow. In 1973, he came to the United States to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City where he earned his Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees.

His principal teachers in Russia were Yuri Yankelevich and Zinaida Gilels. At Juilliard he studied with Ivan Galamian, Joseph Fuchs, Lillian Fuchs and Paul Doktor, and chamber music with members of the Juilliard String Quartet. After graduating from Juilliard he continued to study with composer-philosopher Iosif Andriasov.

Dr. Wieck is on the roster of the Maine Touring Artists Program, and since 1999, he has served as conductor-in-residence at Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colorado.

Tickets for the show are $10 for adults and $2 for students. The event is free to UMPI, NMCC and SAGE students with proper ID. For more information, call 768-9452.