The Faculty Artist Series presents Eastman Virtuosi Saturday, on April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. This performance features Eastman faculty members Richard Killmer, oboe, Kenneth Grant, clarinet, George Sakakeeny, bassoon, Peter Kurau, french horn, Marina Lomazov, piano, Anne Harrow, piccolo, Renée Jolles, violin, George Taylor, viola, Guy Johnston, cello, Mimi Hwang, cello, David Temperley, piano, as well as Robert Swenson, tenor. Repertoire will include Beethoven’s Quintet in E flat major for winds and piano, Op. 16, Ken Benshoof’s In Shadow, light for Piccolo, Violin, Viola, and Cello, David Temperley’s Sonata for cello and piano, among others.
Professor of oboe, Richard Killmer was principal oboist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for eleven years. Killmer was also a member the faculty of the Yale School of Music, for six years, as Visiting Professor of Oboe. He began his early studies on oboe with George Webber and Richard Henderson, with whom he played in the El Paso Symphony.
Associate Professor of Clarinet Kevin Grant has served has the principal clarinetist with the Colorado Philharmonic (summer, 1970), Columbus Symphony Orchestra (1973-87), and Rochester Philharmonic (1987-). He has performed several premieres including Clarinet Concerto by Sydney Hodkinson (world premiere), and Benjamin Britten’s Concerto Movement for Clarinet and Orchestra (United States premiere), both with Rochester Philharmonic.
Professor of Bassoon George Sakakeeny (ESM BM ’78) has appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout North and South America, Europe, and the far East, including engagements in Vienna at the historic Musikverein, at Severance Hall with members of the Cleveland Orchestra, and a nationally televised concert in Japan under the baton of Seiji Ozawa.
Professor of Horn Peter Kurau has studied horn with Verne Reynolds, Paul Ingraham, William Capps, David Cripps, Horace Fitzpatrick, and Barry Tuckwell, as well as chamber music with Robert Nagel, Robert Bloom, Stephen Maxym, Moshe Paronov, and Thomas Nyfenger. He was the recipient of the ITT International Fellowship, Yale Summer School Fellowship, Florida State University Fellowship, Maxie Grant Fellowship, and numerous faculty merit awards.
Professor of Piano Marina Lomazov has established herself as one of the most passionate and charismatic performers on the concert scene today, having given performances throughout North America, South America, China, South Korea, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Japan and in nearly all of the fifty states in the U.S.
Anne Harrow is the Associate Professor of Flute and Piccolo at the Eastman School of Music. She is active as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer and has just returned from performing and teaching in China where she was Principal Flute with MasterWorks China. She is honored to have been named Visiting Professor at Zhengzhou Normal University in Henan Province.
Professor of Violin Renée Jolles enjoys an eclectic career as soloist and chamber artist specializing in a wide variety of styles from the Baroque to the contemporary. Hailed as a “real star,” by The New York Times for her New York Concerto debut in Alice Tully Hall, she has premiered hundreds of works, including the American premiere of Schnittke’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
Professor of Viola George Taylor is a former member of the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University, a position he held from 1979 through 1986. A dedicated, sought-after and beloved teacher, he has served on the artist faculties of The Castleman Quartet Program, Le Dormaine Forget, the Chautauqua Institution, Musicorda, The Encore School for Strings, the Meadowmount School, the Manchester Music Festival, and the Elan International Music Festival, among others.
Associate Professor of Cello Guy Johnston is one of the most exciting and versatile British cellists of his generation. Johnston was born into a musical family and joined his brothers in the world-renowned choir of King’s College, Cambridge, where he recorded the famous carol, “Once in Royal David’s City” under Stephen Cleobury. He went on to achieve important early successes through the BBC Young Musician of the Year title, the Guilhemina Suggia Gift, the Shell London Symphony Orchestra Gerald MacDonald Award, and receiving a Classical Brit Award at the Royal Albert Hall.
Assistant Professor of String Chamber Music Mimi Hwang has studied cello with with Bonnie Hampton, Laurence Lesser, Aldo Parisot, Paul Katz, and Eleonore Schoenfeld and chamber music with Paul Hersh, the Tokyo String Quartet, and the Cleveland Quartet. She has won first prize at competitions such as the Banff International String Quartet Competition (1986), and the Evian International String Quartet competition (1987).
Professor of Music Theory David Temperly a music theorist, cognitive scientist, and composer. He received his PhD in music theory from Columbia University, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Ohio State University. Temperley’s primary research area is computational modelling of music cognition; he has explored issues such as meter perception, key perception, harmonic analysis, and melodic expectation.
Professor of Voice and tenor Robert Swensen received his MM cum laude from the University of Southern California before going on to participate in the San Francisco Opera’s Merola program and to have contracts with the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and with Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. He won first prize in the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, and presented his New York debut recital in 1987.
The Faculty Artist Series is generously supported by Patricia Ward-Baker.
Tickets for Eastman’s Faculty Artist Series are $10 for the general public and free to current Season Subscribers and UR ID holders. Tickets can be purchased at the Eastman Theatre Box Office, 26 Gibbs Street, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Monday-Friday; by phone (585) 274-3000; or online at http://eastmantheatre.org
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About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training. The current dean is Jamal Rossi, appointed in 2014.
About 900 students are enrolled in Eastman’s Collegiate Division—about 550 undergraduate and 350 graduate students. Students come from almost every state, and approximately 20 percent are from other countries. They are guided by more than 95 full-time faculty members. Six alumni and three faculty members have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and numerous alumni and faculty have received Grammy Awards. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 800 concerts to the Rochester community.