Kulshan Duo

On November 8th I volunteered as an usher at the Jansen for a performance by the Kulshan Duo. Fortunately for me this came with a free ticket to the show. The performers in this duo were Mehrdad Gholami and Eli Schille- Hudson both music professors at Western where they teach flute and guitar respectively. They both have very impressive resumes that include solo and ensemble projects all over the world. I was able to introduce myself to Dr. Gholami, I will say it was quite nerve wracking to be speaking to such a talented artist who works in a medium I know largely nothing about. Fortunately for me he was very nice and agreed with me that the fine arts and the music departments should be more collaborative. The duo dedicates itself to performing new and rare music for the flute and guitar. I was skeptical of this instrument combo to begin with but their chemistry absolutely blew me away. The duo began with a piece called Melody and Elegy (1978) by Arno Babajanian which was originally written for the piano but Eli Schille-Hudson arranged it for the duo. The guitar reminded me of a quaint cafe and it was nearly impossible to imagine how this would be played on the piano. The next piece they played was called Toward the Sea (1981) by Toru Tankemitsu which included three movements. This was probably my favorite piece of the night. They warned us before they began that this piece would not follow typical rhythm structure and it absolutely did not. The three movements were filled with long drones acting as waves crashing and staccato guitar. The flute techniques included in these movements were completely different from anything I've ever heard. He was able to create a very breathy vibrato and a low warbling sound that was very reminiscent of the sea and the low hum of a large ship. At some points I wondered if these were proper flute techniques but either way they worked very well. They were able to create such a beautiful dissonance with each other which really played into the odd rhythm in this piece. After this their pieces began to speed up and started to include many more Latin influences. The next piece was Three Preludes for Flute and Guitar (n.d) by George Gershwin. It was very playful with the flute taking the lead playing a jazzy melody. While the guitar served as accompaniment for this piece the fast chord changes were no less impressive. After a short intermission we sat back down and started the second half. They started with Through the Window (n.d) by Golfam Khayam which was a very moody piece that allowed both guitar and flute to share the melody. It also included some pretty interesting guitar and flute techniques like dampened plucking of the guitar and a crazy popping sound made by the flute. The final piece of the night included four movements that all focused on a different decade in the Histoire du Tango (n.d) written by Astro Piazzolla. The piece records the transition from tango being Argentinian street music to cafe to nightclub to concert hall. There was a through line in the rhythm throughout the movements but the moods of the movements shifted, it became more controlled. The movements were very fast, I heard later that this was the fastest they've ever played these movements. Unfortunately it was to their detriment. There were moments when they out paced each other and they lost their cohesion. They finished strong and just like that the show was over. I remained very impressed. Throughout their performance they had very strong communication with each other and allowed for the other to take solo moments without upstaging the other. They both (unsurprisingly) had amazing musicality and truly embodied every piece they played. It has been a long time since I have been to a solely instrumental show and to be at one of this caliber (for free) was truly amazing.