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Musicians from the faculties of three Virginia colleges are collaborating on a recording of piano music to be released next year. In the meantime, local audiences can hear the program live in back-to-back recitals by Randolph College pianist Emily Yap Chua and Sweet Briar’s Nick Ross.

The pair will perform “The Piano Music of Kent Holliday” at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 19 in Sweet Briar’s Memorial Chapel and at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20 in Wimberly Recital Hall in Randolph’s Presser Hall. The concerts are free and open to the public.

Kent Holliday is a contemporary composer and professor of music and humanities at Virginia Tech, where he has taught since 1974. Chua, an associate professor of music at Randolph, and Ross, an associate professor of music at Sweet Briar, first met in 1995 at the Aspen Music Festival, where each studied with John Perry. They became friends after both moved to Central Virginia in 2002 for teaching posts at their respective colleges.

The working title of the forthcoming CD is “A Musical Odyssey: Piano Music by Kent Holliday.” The title suggests and Holliday’s program notes confirm that his music is inspired by the places he’s visited and the indigenous music he has encountered in various travels. One suite, “Hawaiiana,” was included in a concert series that Chua and Ross performed together in 2006.

That collaboration led to the idea of producing a complete recording of Holliday’s music, Ross said. Chua and Ross will make the recording on Sweet Briar’s Schimmel Concert Grand in Memorial Chapel in mid-December.

Other than “Hawaiiana,” which is written for four hands on one piano, each will perform solo.

Chua will play “Sonata for Piano,” a piece Holliday wrote in memoriam for those who died in the 9-11 attacks. She also plays “Tango Exótico,” which the composer rates a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10 for technical challenges.

Ross plays “Milongalgusto” and the suites “Four Evocations” and “Recuerdos Peruanos.” Holliday wrote “Milongalgusto” for Ross after hearing him give a lecture recital on one of his research interests, Claude Debussy’s use of proportional structures in his music.

“Milongalgusto” is based on tango and the related milonga music of South America. It uses divisions based around the mathematical concepts of the golden section and Fibonacci numbers. It also is technically difficult to play, “this time involving reaches of Andean proportions for either hand,” according to Holliday’s program notes.

Ross, who met Holliday in 2003, was immediately impressed with his music. “He understands the piano very well, especially the variety of colors and moods that the piano can create,” he said.

Ross first learned to play “Evocations,” a four-movement suite of, as Holliday writes in his notes, “contrasting moods related to mountain climbing,” that begins the program for the CD and the upcoming concerts. Holliday says he is an avid climber and hiker and has traveled in Europe, Central and South America and the South Pacific in search of “peak experiences.”

His music evokes the geography, history and culture of places he’s visited, such as in “Recuerdos Peruanos.” The movements range from portraying an epic defeat in 1536 of Spanish conquistadors by the Inca King Manco Capac II to re-creating the “song” of Peru’s Vilcanota River.

Ross calls Holliday’s music “supremely written by a very sensitive composer,” and both he and Chua are eager to introduce it to new audiences. The music itself is new, Chua pointed out, having been written in last 25 years or so.

“Though Kent’s music is contemporary, it’s also very accessible,” Chua said, noting that although listeners will hear traditional elements, there’s a “ ‘signature’ to his style in how he fashions his harmonic language and works with the thematic elements.”

Chua, whose playing was described as “vividly enchanting” and “spirited and movingly expressive,” by the Philippine newspaper The Daily Tribune, said the concerts present a rare opportunity for both performers and listeners.

“Sometimes it’s hard to listen to an unfamiliar work or musical style and expect to digest it in just five or ten minutes with one piece,” she said. “With an entire program of new music by this composer, the audience will be able to get acquainted with Kent’s musical language, synthesize what they hear, and develop an ear for his style. It gives them a chance to get a better understanding of his music.”

For more information, please contact Ross at nross@sbc.edu.