Brooks Whitehouse, the principal cellist of the Winston-Salem Symphony, performs chamber music with some of the world's leading musicians. He has soloed with the Boston Pops Orchestra and he has made several recordings.
All this and more has made for a full and successful musical life borne of taking on the most challenging of challenges. But it's not necessarily a complete one.
"I spent all my life doing things that are really hard," Whitehouse said. "I'd love to do something funny."
Whitehouse will get his wish Saturday when he and Paul Sharpe, a double bassist, perform together in Watson Hall at UNC School of the Arts, where both musicians teach.
They'll appear as a recently formed duo called Low and Lower, performing and/or talking their way through all kinds of music with the lowest of low notes. The aim, as stated in Low and Lower's publicity materials, is a concert that is "more fun than just classical."
Saturday's program will include a transcription of a Haydn divertimento, a world premiere and two pieces that require musicians to play and do monologues at the same time.
The world premiere will be "Slaying of the Dragon," which was written by Michael Anderson, who is studying with Kenneth Frazelle at UNCSA.
The two monologue-filled pieces will likely get the audience chuckling. These will be John Deak's "B.B. Wolf" and Mike Kelley's "Twisted for Low Trio."
"Wolf" will feature Sharpe playing eclectic solo fare and reciting what Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times called an "impish monologue by a misunderstood wolf … who complains of the injustice of being hunted down for chasing little piggies and such."
In "Low Trio," Whitehouse, Sharpe and violist Janet Orenstein will recite tongue-twisters as they play rhythmic music. Orenstein, also a violinist, is married to Whitehouse.
"It's kind of like being a pianist," Whitehouse said, describing the skills of talking and playing at the same time. "You learn the left hand. You learn the right hand. And you put them together."
And you loosen up your tongue and lips for such tongue-twisters as "the sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick."
"I can't say that I have that one up to tempo yet," Whitehouse said.
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