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Kate Boyd The season kicks off with Kate Boyd offering a Germanic program of such traditional masterpieces as Beethoven "Pastorale" Sonata Op. 28, and Brahms Variations and Fugue on the Theme by Handel. |
Dr. Kate Boyd has performed as a soloist on many concert series and as a guest artist with established chamber music ensembles throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Among many other performances, she has appeared on the Trinity Chapel Series in New York, the SOLO series in Sligo, Ireland, and performed Schubert in Schubert’s birth house in Vienna, Austria. An avid chamber musician, Dr. Boyd's collaborations have led her to work with musicians across the US as well as in Europe, where she was active as a concert artist and teacher for seven years. In addition to performing standard works of the piano literature, she has a long-standing interest in commissioning new works and performing works by living composers. In Dublin, Ireland, she was a featured performer on the Bank of Ireland's Mostly Modern Series, performing works by contemporary women composers. With soprano Alisa Pearson she commissioned eight original songs which were premiered in 2001. She is a founding member of the New York-based Oracle Trio, a piano trio that has performed many contemporary works, including a 2006 work by composer Douglas McConnell that was commissioned by the Ohio Music Teachers Association. This season she is recording a CD consisting entirely of previously-unrecorded works for solo piano composed since 1993. In addition to frequent concerts on the Butler campus, recent performances have included a live radio appearance on WGTE (Toledo, Ohio), recitals on the Musical Arts Series at Firelands (Port Clinton, Ohio) and in New York's Steinway Hall, and chamber music appearances at the Painted Sky Music Festival (Flagstaff, Arizona) and on the Hoff-Barthelson Artist Series (Scarsdale, New York). Dr. Boyd holds degrees from Stony Brook University and the Oberlin Conservatory. She also holds a performance diploma from the Hannover (Germany) Academy of Music. Her many awards and prizes include a Fulbright scholarship to Cologne, Germany. Her major teacher and pedagogical influence was renowned pianist Gilbert Kalish. Other formative teachers include Arie Vardi, Arbo Valdma, and Sedmara Rutstein. Dr. Boyd was a fellow at the Tanglewood and Blossom Music Centers as well as the Banff Centre for the Arts. She spends her summers teaching chamber music and piano at the Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont. Dr. Boyd currently serves as director of piano studies and assistant professor of piano at Butler University.
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WASHINGTON GARCIA Washington Garcia offers an eclectic program of Haydn, Chopin, Liszt and works by Latin American composers. Don't miss hearing this dynamic pianist and his affinity for a diverse array of repertoire. Born in Quito, Ecuador, Dr. Washington García began his musical studies at the age of 6. Among his teachers are Genoveva Granja, Toshko Stoyanov, Ann Schein, Yoheved Kaplinsky, and Julian Martin. Dr. García holds a bachelor of music from the National Conservatory of Music in Ecuador, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated at the age of 25 becoming the youngest Latin American to have received a Doctoral degree in piano performance from the Johns Hopkins University. The success of his first public performance at the age of 6 led him to perform at the most important cultural centers in Ecuador. Dr. García was awarded first prizes at the Guillermo Wright-Vallarino National Piano Competition held in Quito, the Elizabeth Davis Memorial Piano Competition and the 19th International Young Artist Piano Competition in Washington DC, the 2004 Baltimore Music Club Piano Competition, and the Harrison Winter Piano Competition. As the winner of the Harrison Winter at the Peabody Institute, Dr. García was selected to perform with the Peabody Concert Orchestra. He was also a top prizewinner at the Yale Gordon Piano Competition, the Russell Wonderlic Piano Competition, and a finalist at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. From a very early age, Dr. García became a seasoned veteran of the concert platform, performing extensively throughout his native country. Several times he has been soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador under the baton of maestro Alvaro Manzano. Dr. García also played at the US Embassy in Quito and at the Claudio Arrau International Piano Seminar in Santiago, Chile for former President Patricio Aylwin. Dr. García was chosen from a large field of contestants from 33 countries by the Kennedy Center to receive one of two grants awarded to pianists in its Fellowships of the Americas Program. As a result, he came to the United States to begin intensive piano studies with Professor Julian Martin at the Peabody Institute. Under the auspices of the Fellowships of the Americas Program he was invited to play at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, the Organization of American States, the World Bank, the Inter-American Bank, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Other performances include recitals at the Department of State and the Mexican Cultural Center in Washington D.C., the Chesapeake Center of the Performing Arts and St. Ignatius Church in Baltimore, and the National Library and Archives in Ottawa, Canada, where Dr. García performed in Glenn Gould’s piano. He was one of five young artists presented by the Texas Conservatory for Young Artists in Dallas. He has also performed in Israel with maestro Sam Zebba and the Campus Orchestra of the city of Tel-Aviv. Most recently, Dr. García performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Ildefonso Museum in Mexico City, the Hong Kong Baptist University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and at the Green Valley Chamber Music Festival in Las Vegas. Since his European debut in Rome at the Instituto Italo-Latinoamericano, under the auspices of Continental Airlines, Dr. García has been an active recitalist, soloist, and lecturer in prestigious venues in Switzerland, Austria, France, Spain, Hungary, Canada, Israel, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Hong Kong, and the United States. In addition to awards granted by the Peabody Institute and the Ecuadorian government, including the prize “Monseñor Leonidas Proaño” and the award “Al Mérito Laboral,” Dr. García was also named a Presser Scholar and grant recipient by the Presser Music Foundation. Most recently, he was awarded the Friends of Fine Arts Scholarly/Creative Award presented by the College of Fine Arts and Communication at Texas State University-San Marcos. Dr. García served in the faculty of the Peabody Preparatory of the Johns Hopkins University and is currently an assistant professor of piano at Texas State University-San Marcos, where he is the coordinator of the piano department. He also teaches at the Austin Chamber Music Festival.
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MENDELSSOHN FESTIVAL: CELEBRATING 200 YEARSThursday, February 12, at Eight: VICTOR SANTIAGO ASUNCION Known for his poetic and communicative performances worldwide, Victor Santiago Asuncion begins the Mendelssohn Festival with a recital that includes some of Mendelssohn's best known solo piano works. Hailed by the Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion is recognized as a pianist of innate musical sensitivity and superb technique. As a recitalist and concerto soloist, he has appeared in major concert halls in Canada, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and the Philippines. He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Zev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, and Bobby McFerrin. A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Cho-Liang Lin, James Dunham, Ronald Leonard, Susanne Mentzer, H.K. Gruber, John O’Connor, Marc Neikrug, and the Vega and Emerson String quartets at venues that include the Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery, 92nd Street Y, Benaroya, Merkin, Spivey and Shriver Concert Halls, and the Santa Fe, Aspen, Madison, and Amelia Island Chamber Music Festivals. He was on the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School, as well as the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival. He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. In addition to his active performing career, Mr. Asuncion is sought after as a piano, vocal, and chamber music coach. He was appointed assistant professor at the University of Memphis in 2003 and coordinator of Piano and Collaborative Arts Studies in 2004. He has given master classes at Minnesota State University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Memphis, the Washington Conservatory, the Pera Piano festival in Turkey and throughout the Philippines. The 2006-2007 season featured solo and chamber music performances at Stetson, Vanderbilt, Ouachita Baptist, Henderson, and Christian Brothers Universities; The Virginia Military Institute, Randolph-Macon Women’s College and University of Mississippi at Oxford; St. Scholastica’s University, University of Santo Tomas, and GSIS Museum in the Philippines; Cerritos Performing Arts Center, Shriver Hall, and the Memphis Chamber Music Society. Festival appearances for the summer of 2007 included performances at the Madison and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals, and the Virtuosi Festival in Recife, Brazil. Highlights of the 2007-2008 season included appearances with the violinist Susanna Gilmore, concert-master of the Memphis Symphony, featuring the 10 Sonatas of Beethoven for piano and violin, and a Bach Harpsichord Concerto appearance with the Memphis Symphony. Victor also appears with the Vega String Quartet, violinists Dale Barltrop and Laurie Smukler, and cellist Felix Wang. His collaborations with Lynn Harrell continued with appearances at the Tacoma Philharmonic and Library of Congress Recital Series. In addition, he was a returning faculty member of the Memphis Opera and Song Academy at the University of Memphis. Mr. Asuncion will open the prestigious Filipino Artist Series at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in July, and will also makes his debut recitals in Turkey and Singapore. The 2008-2009 concert season will feature solo and chamber music recital appearances at the Virginia Military Institute, University of Mississippi, University of Memphis, and Kent State and Lynn Universities, and in Recife and Sao Paolo, Brazil. Mr. Asuncion also appears with the cellist Lynn Harrell in Concord, Massachusetts; Santa Barbara, California; SUNY Purchase, New York; People’s Symphony Concerts in New York City; San Francisco and the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival in California. In addition, Mr. Asuncion will open and close the 20th Anniversary season of the Memphis Chamber Music Society with performances with the Vega String Quartet and the violinist Sergiu Schwartz. Mr. Asuncion’s major teachers include Rita Sloan at the University of Maryland at College Park, Roberta Rust at the Harid Conservatory, David Buechner at Manhattan School, Gary Steigerwalt and Luiz de Moura-Castro at the Hartt School, Avelina Manalo at the University of the Philippines and Rosario Picazo at the Philippine High School for the Arts. Additional studies include master classes and private lessons with Wu Han, Byron Janis, Santiago Rodriguez, Warren Jones, Andre Michel Schub, Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo, Christoph Eschenbach, Felix Galimir, Orlando Cole, Dorothy Delay, Donald Weilerstein, William Preucil and Leon Fleisher. Mr. Asuncion received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in May 2007 from the University of Maryland At College Park. |
Friday, February 13, at Eight: JERRY WONG, pianist, with violinist DAISUKE YAMAMOTO and cellist MARIE-THAIS LEVESQUE Violinist Daisuke Yamamoto and cellist Marie-Thais Levesque, members of the Akron and Canton Symphonies, join Jerry Wong, Kent State piano faculty, in the dazzlingly virtuosic piano trios of Mendelssohn. Jerry Wong has concertized throughout the United States, Europe and Asia in such prestigious settings as the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, National Concert Hall of Taipei, National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., Opera City Hall in Tokyo, PianoForte in Chicago, Shriver Hall in Baltimore and Weill Recital Hall in New York City. His many prizes and awards include the Bartók-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev, Grace Welsh, Ibla Grand Prize and Yale Gordon Competitions, as well as the Prix-Ville de Fontainebleau in France (which was personally presented to him by Philippe Entremont). Recent highlights have included concerto appearances with the Humboldt Symphony Orchestra, Kent State University Orchestra, Stow Symphony Orchestra and Suburban Symphony, as well as recitals and masterclasses in Italy, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. An avid chamber musician and collaborative pianist, he has toured extensively with trumpeter Joe Burgstaller (formerly with Canadian Brass), performed an all-Schubert recital with violinist Werner Hink (concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic) at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, appeared with the flute duo ZAWA! and performed at Kent/Blossom Music with the Miami String Quartet and members of The Cleveland Orchestra. This past summer, his activities included the world premiere of Seymour Bernstein’s Three Etudes at the Music Teachers Association of California Convention, solo recitals at Indiana University Piano Academy and the inaugural Stony Brook International Piano Festival, and a masterclass at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Summer Sonata. Critics have enthusiastically praised Mr. Wong’s solo and concerto performances. Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Martin Bernheimer described his playing as “eloquent and elegant…(with) passion and introspection…sensitivity and a finely honed sense of style”. The Orange County Register compared him to “a young Murray Perahia,” and the New York Concert Review praised his “elegant rubatos….(and) interpretive imagination.” His performances and interviews have been featured on HCTV, KHSU, WCLV, WKSU, Finnish National Radio, Living & Travel Section of msnbc.com, Nippon Television and Radio Video Mediterranean. The 08-09 season marks the debut of an all-Prokofiev CD on the Athena Records label. Mr. Wong is a graduate of Indiana University, Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music, where he completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. While at Manhattan School, he held fellowships in piano teaching and chamber music, and won the annual concerto competition, performing Liszt’s Totentanz under Zdenek Macal. His major teachers have included Menahem Pressler, Ann Schein, Sara Davis Buechner and Byron Janis. Frequently sought after for lectures, masterclasses and as adjudicator, he has taught courses at The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program and Manhattan School of Music, and is a former faculty member of Humboldt State University and Ithaca College. He presently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Piano at Kent State University in Ohio. During the summers, he is co-director of the Piano Institute at Kent State and a member of the Kent/Blossom Music faculty.
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Saturday, February 14, at Five: STUDENT RECITAL For the first time ever, Kent State piano students debut on the Kent Keyboard Series to perform a valentine's Day Concert of solo, four-hand and eight-hand works of Mendelssohn.
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Sunday, February 15, at Eight: DONNA LEE Pianist Donna Lee made her solo debut in 1990 with the National Symphony Orchestra. She has since appeared as a soloist and collaborative artist at Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall and Terrace Theater in Washington, DC and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City. She has also performed in Asia, Europe and throughout the US. She has been heard in broadcast performances over radio stations: WQXR, NY; WGMS, Washington, DC; WKLM, Michigan; WCLV, Cleveland; WKSU, Northeast Ohio; Swedish Radio, throughout Sweden; and Voice of America, Far East. She has recorded for the Proprius, Innova, and Musart labels. She made her solo recording debut on the Azica label, with a program entitled Scenes from Childhood with works by Schumann, del Tredici, Medtner, and Prokofieff. Critics have described Donna Lee’s performances as elegant and refined (Il Fronimo, Italy), engaging (WCLV-Cleveland) and brilliant (Iwate Daily News, Japan). Recent performances include solo recitals in Savannah, Georgia, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Chicago, Illinois, among others. She has appeared at Interlochen Arts Festival with Rodney Winther and the World Youth Wind Symphony, performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, at Kent/Blossom Chamber Music with the Miami String Quartet in Dohnanyi’s Quintet No. 1 and at Brevard Music Center with distinguished artist-faculty. Audiences have enjoyed her creative thematic programs, and in the 2006 Season, celebrated a “Commemorative Year”, featuring Robert Schumann in concerts with performances in Hong Kong, Beijing, China and Puerto Rico. In 2007, she performs a recital program of Songs and Dances; collaboratively, she performs with cellist Keith Robinson in Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano. Donna Lee earned her doctorate from Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, her Masters from The Juilliard School, and her bachelor of music degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studied with prominent artist-teachers Julian Martin, the late Rudolf Firkusny, and Thomas Schumacher, respectively. A highly sought-after teacher and clinician, she has had numerous prize-winning students. She has taught at Peabody Conservatory, Bucknell University and Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. Presently, Donna Lee is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Piano Division at Kent State University in Ohio; during the summers, she is co-director of the Piano Institute at Kent State and artist-faculty at Kent/Blossom Chamber Music in Ohio and Brevard Music Center in North Carolina. |
