Click a picture above for detailed program and bio information as it becomes available. |
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DONNA LEE Songs and Dances Melody from Orpheus, Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787), (transcribed by Giovanni Sgambati) (1841-1914) Six Bagatelles, Op. 126, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Chamber-Fantasy on Bizet’s “Carmen” (Sonatina No. 6), Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) Canciones y Danzas, Federico Mompou (1893-1987) Daisies, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), (transcribed by E. Wild) (b. 1915- ) Mephisto Waltz No. 1, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) |
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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.
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LAURA MELTON Sonata in D Major, K. 576, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) Partita No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 826, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Three Preludes (1999-2001), Samuel Adler (b. 1928) Sonata No. 3 in E (1942), Ross Lee Finney Three Etudes from Book One (1985), Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006) |
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Laura Melton, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at Bowling Green State University, has been a prize winner in several major international competitions including the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin, the New York Recital Division of the Joanna Hodges Competition, and the National Symphony Orchestra's Young Artist Competition. Melton also reached the semi-finals of the Orleans International Competition in France, the Concurso International de Ejecucion Musical in Chile and the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland. Her orchestral appearances include the Freiburg Musikhochschulorchester in Germany, the San Francisco Chamber Players, the International Chamber Orchestra in California, and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Her numerous appearances on radio and television include recordings for Südwestfunk Radio in Germany and appearances on National Public Radio's Performance Today in celebration of the birthday of composers, John Corigliano and Samuel Adler. She is currently recording a CD of solo and chamber works of Samuel Adler for Albany Records. Melton is an avid chamber musician and performs across the US as a member of the Phoenix Piano Quartet. She has appeared in several US summer festivals including Ravinia, Aspen, and Sarasota, as well as European festivals in Holland, Switzerland, and Germany. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, where she was a student of Nelita True; a master's degree from the University of Southern California, under John Perry; and a doctorate from Rice University, where she was a graduate fellow and teaching assistant to John Perry. As a student of Robert Levin, she spent three years in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, earning the solistendiplom while studying at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg. Her students have won numerous competitions and awards, and have been accepted into such prestigious programs as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard, Eastman, Oberlin, Peabody and the New England Conservatory. A graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy, Melton is currently a summer faculty member at the Interlochen Arts Camp. Prior to her BGSU appointment in 1999, Melton was on the faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California. |
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Masterclass: Spencer Myer, guest artist Free and open to the public SPENCER MYER I Sonata No. 24 in F-Sharp major, Op. 78, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Adagio cantabile – Allegro man non troppo II Sonata-Reminiscenza in A minor, Op. 38, No. 1, Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) III Four Etudes, Op. 7, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
-----------Intermission------------ IV The Four Ballades, Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 Steinway Piano |
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Garnering stellar audience and critical acclaim from around the globe, SPENCER MYER is rapidly establishing himself as one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation. Highlights of Spencer Myer’s current season include debuts with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and New Haven and Phoenix symphony orchestras, a return to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and recitals throughout the United States. His debut solo CD - comprising music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Ellis Kohs - is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2007 on the harmonia mundi usa label. Spencer Myer’s orchestral, recital and chamber music performances have been heard throughout North America, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Beijing’s China National Symphony Orchestra, and has collaborated with, among others, conductors Nicholas Cleobury, Jacques Lacombe, Jahja Ling, Maurice Peress, Klauspeter Seibel, Arjan Tien and Victor Yampolsky. In May 2005, his recital/orchestral tour of South Africa included a performance of the five piano concerti of Beethoven with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa. Mr. Myer made his debut at the famed festival of the Blossom Music Center during the summer of 2007. Spencer Myer’s recital appearances have been presented in New York City’s Weill Recital Hall, 92nd Street Y and Steinway Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as in Chicago, Cincinnati, Fort Worth, Knoxville, Logan and China, while many of his performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York City), WHYY (Philadelphia), WCLV (Cleveland) and WFMT (Chicago). An avid chamber musician, he has also performed with the Blair and Pacifica String Quartets. In January 2007, Mr. Myer performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at the Inaugural Festivities of Ohio’s Governor Ted Strickland and Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher. In 2004, Spencer Myer captured First Prize in the 10th UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as special prizes for the best performances of Bach, the commissioned work, the semifinal round recital and both concerto prizes in the final round. He is also a laureate in the 2007 William Kapell, 2005 Cleveland, 2005 Busoni (where he was also awarded the Audience Prize), 2004 Montréal and 2003 New Orleans International Piano Competitions. Winner of the 2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association, Mr. Myer also received both of the competition’s special prizes in Chamber Music and Lieder Accompanying. He is also the winner of the 2000 Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, and subsequently enjoys a growing reputation as a vocal collaborator. Mr. Myer has been a member of Astral Artistic Services’ performance roster since winning that organization’s 2003 national auditions. An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians, Spencer Myer has been a frequent guest artist at workshops for students and teachers, including Indiana’s Goshen College Piano Workshop and the Texas Conservatory for Young Artists in Dallas, and has served on the faculty of the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music. He is also an advocate of contemporary music and inter-arts collaboration, and has worked with the Chicago- and New York-based ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Indianapolis’ Dance Kaleidoscope, Ohio Dance Theatre and New York City’s New Triad for Collaborative Arts and The Juilliard School’s “Composers and Choreographers” series. Spencer Myer is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin. Other teachers include Peter Takács, Joseph Schwartz and Christina Dahl. He spent two summers at the Music Academy of the West, studying with Jerome Lowenthal and, later, Vocal Accompanying with Warren Jones and Marilyn Horne. During the course of his undergraduate studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he was the recipient of numerous awards from that institution, while, in 2000, he was named a recipient of a four-year Jacob K. Javits Memorial Fellowship from the United States Department of Education. His Doctor of Musical Arts degree was conferred by Stony Brook University in 2005. Spencer Myer can be heard on the Dimension Records label, performing music of the late Cleveland composer Frederick Koch and on a composer-conducted Naxos CD in performances of three concerti from Huang Ruo’s Chamber Concerto Cycle. His debut CD for harmonia mundi usa - music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Kohs - was released in the fall of 2007. |
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Masterclass: ENRICO ELISI
Click here to read Enrico Elisi's biography. |
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JERRY WONG
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Jerry Wong has concertized throughout the United States, Europe and Asia in such prestigious settings as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City, National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., Shriver Hall in Baltimore, Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, National Concert Hall of Taipei and Opera City Hall in Tokyo. In recent seasons, he has given solo recitals at universities, colleges and music teacher’s associations in California, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Other recent engagements have included appearances with the Kent State University Orchestra, Suburban Symphony, Stow Symphony Orchestra, Humboldt Symphony Orchestra and the Miami String Quartet at Kent/Blossom Music. This season, he toured Asia, performing recitals at Tunghai University and the Tainan University of Art in Taiwan, Yong Sieh Tow Conservatory in Singapore and conducting masterclasses at the Kinta Music School in Malaysia. His many prizes and awards include the Ibla Grand Prize Competition in Italy, Prix-Ville de Fontainebleau in France (which was personally presented to him by Philippe Entremont), Bartók-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition and Grace Welsh Competition. 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 described his playing “as a performance which turned the concert into an unforgettable event.” His performances and interviews have been featured on National Public Radio, Finnish National Radio, Radio Video Mediterranean, Nippon Television and the Living & Travel Section of msnbc.com. Dr. Wong is a graduate of Indiana University, Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music, where he completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. 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 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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