"It's very common for composers to write their final works for the viola," Dimitri Murrath says of the program for his Faculty Artist Series performance on Oct. 17. "It's not like they particularly chose to do it; a lot of them maybe had bad luck. But in Shostakovich's case, I think it might have been more on purpose."

But Murrath didn't pick Shostakovich's Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147 because it lines up with any particular trend of composers turning to the viola at the end of their career, or out of personal relevance to his instrument.

"It's actually because of current events," Murrath added. "Shostakovich suffered under the Soviet regime, so that's something that I thought would be meaningful right now, with the same issues regarding democracy in Eastern Europe right now."

Aside from featuring perennial favorite Bach—in the form of his Suite No. 1 for violoncello solo in G Major, BWV 1007—Murrath also chose Florence Price's Elfentanz to open the evening because he wanted to make to program a woman composer, adding, that while it was originally written for violin, Elfentanz "is just one of those pieces that sounds really nice on viola," Murrath continued. "But I didn't just pick it [because of Price's gender]," he continued. "I picked it because it's really good music." (Much of the music written by Price, who was active from the late 1920s until the early 1950s, was perilously close to being completely forgotten until a huge trove of her work was found in an abandoned home of hers in 2009.)

Price is "brilliant," Murrath enthused: "That particular piece, there's just so much grace in it, it's really beautiful."

The concert will also be a set of firsts for Murrath, who has not performed either Elfentanz or the final piece of the program, Zoltán Kodály's Adagio for viola and piano, in public before.

Learn more about Murrath's Faculty Artist Series performance here and learn more about studying viola at SFCM.