Friday Afternoon Musicale: Duets and Arias from the World of Opera and Musical Theatre
Chatham University Music faculty members Walter Morales, piano, Kelly Lynch, soprano, and guest artist Raymond Blackwell, baritone present arias and duets from the world of grand opera and Musical Theatre. The afternoon program includes music by Ravel to LeGrand, Rossini to Puccini, Irving Berlin to Frank Loesser… more! We hope to see you at the James Laughlin Music Center on April 14th at 4pm for this Friday Afternoon Musicale!
Friday Afternoon Musicale: A Musical Prayer
Two weeks ago, we welcomed flutist Amy I-Yun Tu and pianist Sha Wang to perform A Musical Prayer. They presented works from Rameau, Tournier, Bloch, Schubert, and Brahms. If you missed this concert, you can watch it here!
Flutist Amy Tu enjoys an active schedule as a soloist, chamber musician, and clinician while on faculty at Rutgers Community Arts since 2014. Her principal teachers include Dr. Bradley Garner, Bart Feller, and Lois Herbine. In solo and ensemble settings, Ms. Tu has performed at concert venues in the United States, Italy, Austria, Great Britain, Japan, and Taiwan and has recorded for Mark Records. In recent years, she collaborated with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, World Civic Orchestra, Eastern Wind Symphony, NOVUS NY, and Hub City Opera and Dance Company. She has been invited to present and perform at the Midwest Clinic (2015), International Trumpet Guild (ITC) conference (2017), National Flute Association Conventions in Orlando (2018), and Salt Lake City (2019).
Pianist Sha Wang (DMA) is a performing concert pianist, chamber musician, as well as a sought-after piano pedagogue. Dr. Wang has performed in concert series at Carnegie Hall, Peter Norton Symphony Space, and the Kosciuszko Foundation Auditorium in NYC; Dame Myra Hess Concert Series at the Chicago Cultural Center, Richard Nixon’s Library, Steinway Society of Southwestern PA, as well as other concert venues throughout the country. She has appeared on WQED FM Pittsburgh, WFMT 98.7 Chicago and other media outlets in Asia and Europe. She was also featured in a concert for the late U.S. President Gerald Ford. As a collaborative pianist, she has performed with artists such as pianist Lang Lang, violinist Kun Dong (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra), soprano Tamara Wilson (Houston Grand Opera) and with members of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Pianist Sha Wang enjoys a career as an active concert pianist, a professor of music, as well as a scholar in music theory. At the age of 19, Ms. Wang became the winner of the 16th International Young Artist Piano Competition, Washington, D.C. Since then, she has advanced into competitions such as the Jose Iturbi International Music Competition, Hilton-Head International Piano Competition and the Honens International Piano Competition. She is the first prize winner at the Long Beach Mozart Festival Concerto Competition, the grand prize winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Competition, the 2nd prize winner of the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, and the alternate finalist at the Seattle International Piano Competition.
Friday Afternoon Musicale: Piano Fantastique
Thank you to everyone who joined us in welcoming Dr. Nanette Kaplan Solomon for our Friday Afternoon Musicale on Friday, February 17!
Piano Fantastique: An Afternoon of Piano Fantasies
Please join us in James Laughlin Music Center on Friday, February 17 at 4 pm as the Chatham University Friday Musicale series presents pianist Nanette Kaplan Solomon in a virtuosic and poetic journey through the beloved genre of the piano fantasy. Beginning with J.S. Bach’s delightful Fantasia in C Minor, the program also features the magnificent C Major Fantasy , op. 17, by Robert Schumann, lush, romantic Fantasy Pieces by the little-known Croatian composer Dora Pejacevic, Fantasie Negre no. 2 by American composer Florence Price, and William Hirtz ‘s (a Pittsburgh native) whirlwind tour of the iconic Harold Arlen tunes in his Wizard of Oz Fantasy.
Student Recital
Join us next Monday, December 5th, for two recitals of students from the music program to show the culmination of their efforts from throughout the fall semester. More information will be available soon as to who will perform in which recital, which will occur at 4pm and 6pm. Please reach out to rovkah@chatham.edu if you have any questions.
Homage: Melody S. Quah, piano
Join the Chatham University Music Program for our next Friday Afternoon Musicale on November 18th at 4 pm, in the Founder’s Room at James Laughlin Music Hall. Melody Quah will be playing a series of pieces: Homage: Contemporary works by Jimmy López, Tania León, Parisa Sabet, and “Kriesleriana” Op. 16 by Schumann. We hope to see you there!
Pianist Melody Quah presents a recital of homages, featuring music by Ferruccio Busoni, Adeline Wong, Tania León and Robert Schumann. Busoni’s arrangement of Bach’s D-minor Chaconne for violin frames a Baroque masterpiece within the Italian composer’s Romantic lens, while Malaysian composer Adeline Wong takes inspiration from the humor and playfulness found in Bach’s Goldberg Variations. In Homenatge, Tania León pays tribute to her Cuban roots and the composer Xavier Montsalvatge. The recital concludes with Schumann’s timeless Kreisleriana, Op. 16, a piece inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman’s literary character, the eccentric and wild Johannes Kreisler.
Described as a “poet with titanium fingers” by the Vancouver Sun, Dr. Melody Quah has performed extensively on the stages of her native Malaysia as well as across Asia, Europe and North America. Quah’s music career encompasses a wide range of activities — soloist, collaborative pianist, chamber musician, educator, adjudicator, masterclass clinician, and music director.
Ukrainian Composer Valentin Silvestrov: Complete Piano Sonatas
Join the Chatham University Music Program next Friday, October 21st at 4pm for a Friday Afternoon Musicale performed by pianist James Iman.
One of the greatest composers of our time, Valentin Silvestrov withdrew from public attention in the 1970s, and rejected his earlier modernist style. The three sonatas presented here exemplify his period of transition. Each presents elements of modernism (atonality, extended techniques, etc.) and a renewed interest in tonality/modality, as well as classical structures. Silvestrov has remained creatively independent and in recent decades has shed avant-garde devices and discovered a style which he calls “metamusic” (a truncation of “metaphorical music.” His work, Der Bote (The Messenger), has become his most well-known of his later style.
Watch James Iman’s introduction video here: https://youtu.be/TpilDcbbOeU
Friday Afternoon Musicale: Valentin Silvestrov
One of the greatest composers of our time, Valentin Silvestrov withdrew from public attention in the 1970s, and rejected his earlier modernist style. The three sonatas presented here exemplify his period of transition. Each presents elements of modernism (atonality, extended techniques, etc.) and a renewed interest in tonality/modality, as well as classical structures. Silvestrov has remained creatively independent and in recent decades has shed avant-garde devices and discovered a style which he calls “metamusic” (a truncation of “metaphorical music.” His work, Der Bote (The Messenger), has become his most well-known of his later style. James Iman created an introduction for this program that you can watch here.
You can watch his performance from October 21, 2022 at this link.
Upcoming Events
Chatham University’s music program has several upcoming events:
October 21
Ukrainian composer Valentine Silvestrov: Piano Sonatas
James Iman, piano
November 18
Homage: Contemporary works by Jimmy López, Tania León, and Parisa Sabet, as well as Schumann’s timeless masterpiece, Kriesleriana Op. 16.
Melody S. Quah, piano
More details will be posted closer to each event. We hope to see you there!
Stand with Ukraine: Chamber Music Concert
The Stand with Ukraine Concert featured well-known musicians playing chamber music as a fundraiser for Ukraine. If you missed this performance on April 21, 2022, you can watch it at this link.
The program features:
National Anthem of Ukraine “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy”: Mykhailo Verbytsky; Pavlo Chubynsky – Victory Brinker and The Pittsburgh Cello Quartet: Bronwyn Banerdt, Will Chow, Michael Lipman, Charlie Powers
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sarabande from Cello Suite No.3 in C major, BWV 1009 – Bronwyn Banerdt, cello
Samuel Barber: Adagio from String Quartet – Jeremy Black, violin; Dennis O’Boyle, violin; Marylène Gingras-Roy, viola; Charlie Powers, cello
Igor Stravinsky: Elegy for Solo Viola – Tatjana Mead Chamis, viola
Stanyslav Lyudkevych: Lament – Marta Krechkovsky, violin; Pauline Rovkah, piano
Johann Sebastian Bach: Adagio from Toccata BWV 564 – Lorna McGhee, flute; Pauline Rovkah, piano
Christoph Willibald Gluck: Dance of the Blessed Spirits – Lorna McGhee, flute; Pauline Rovkah, piano
Arvo Pärt: Mozart-Adagio for violin, cello and piano – Jennifer Orchard, violin; Mikhail Istomin, cello; Pauline Rovkah, piano
Sergei Rachmaninov: Moment Musicaux, No. 3 in B minor, op. 16 – Pauline Rovkah, piano
Paul Crath: from Songs of Ukraine – Sue Finegold
Jules Massenet: Meditation from Thais – Mark Huggins, violin; Pauline Rovkah, piano
Johann Sebastian Bach: Siciliano for Oboe and Harp – Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp; Max Blair, oboe
Claude Debussy: Clair de Lune – Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp; Lorna McGhee, flute; Max Blair, oboe
Edward Elgar: Salut D’Amour – Anne Williams, cello; Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp
Gabriel Fauré: Apres un reve – Anne Williams, cello; Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp
Anton Bruckner: Locus Iste – The Pittsburgh Cello Quartet: Bronwyn Banerdt, Will Chow, Michael Lipman, Charlie Powers
Paul Crath: from Songs of Ukraine – Jim Cunningham
Viktor Kosenko: Bandura – Guenko Guechev, bass-baritone; Pauline Rovkah, piano
Myroslav Skoryk: Melody (Melodiya) – Marta Krechkovsky, Pauline Rovkah, piano
Mykola Lysenko (arr. Grant Johnson) Prayer for Ukraine – Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians