Chicago DUO PIANO FEST Celebrates 30 Years This Fall

The Music Institute of Chicago announces the 30th anniversary season of its annual Chicago Duo Piano Festival (CDPF) beginning this fall with a concert program Friday, October 27 at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston and continuing with a year of performances and a youth duo piano competition.

Called a "duo piano mecca" by Pioneer Press, the Chicago Duo Piano Festival was founded in 1988 by Music Institute of Chicago faculty members and piano duo in residence Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem. Its mission is to foster a deeper interest in the repertoire, performance, and teaching of music for piano, four hands and two pianos, in a fun and supportive atmosphere. The festival offers coaching, master classes, concerts with special guest artists, and student recitals for students age 12 through adult.

Neiweem commented, "Thinking about our early days in 1988 as Chicago Duo Piano Workshop, we are gratified to see the festival grow into an event of international importance for fans of the piano duo. For this milestone season, we are presenting an expanded number of concerts and master classes, a world premiere piece for two pianos by Miami-based composer Robert Chumbley, and our annual national youth competition." Aebersold added, "The CDPF mission continues unabated into the next decade, and we welcome everyone to share the enthusiasm by attending one of the many exciting events planned for our season of celebration."

Music Institute President and CEO Mark George remarked, "What a magnificent achievement it is for Claire and Ralph to have led the Chicago Duo Piano Festival with such artistry and dynamism for 30 consecutive years!"

SEASON PROGRAMS
• October 27, 2017: The anniversary season kicks off with a concert program at 7:30 p.m. The program includes Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, featuring pianists Fiona Queen and Kay Kim and percussionists Josh Graham and John Corkill, and a 2008 CDPF commission, Patrick Byers' Air from a Balcony, performed by Aebersold and Neiweem. Lauren Kim and Colin Song, Senior Division first place winners in the 2017 National Youth Competition for Piano Duos, perform Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream: Nocturne and Scherzo, and Jisu and Won Yang, who placed second in the Senior Division, perform Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor.

• March 2-4, 2018: The Chicago Duo Piano Winter Mini-fest, an annual event, includes a weekend of master classes, coachings, lectures, student recitals, and other events open to all piano students. Registration deadline is February 1, 2018. Mini-fest concerts, open to the general public, feature the next installment in the Duo Piano Dialogues series, "Exploring Claude Debussy." Duo Piano Dialogues, a series of performances with commentary by Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem, spotlights the unique repertoire for two pianists at one and two pianos. Marking the centenary of Debussy's death, Aebersold and Neiweem present a program, which takes place Friday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m., dedicated to the composer's music for piano duo, including his own arrangement of La Mer for piano, four hands. A "faculty extravaganza" concert showcasing the talented Music Institute faculty takes place Saturday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m.

• June 2 and 3, 2018: The Chicago National Youth Competition for Piano Duos is open to piano duos ages 9-18, currently in elementary to high school, studying and residing in the United States. Winners will receive cash prizes and participate in a winners concert, which will air later on WFMT 98.7FM.

• July 8-20, 2018: Concluding the season is the 30th Chicago Duo Piano Festival, offering participants coaching, lectures, master classes, and recitals and featuring an expanded schedule of public performances:

• The Opening Festival Concert Sunday, July 8 at 3 p.m. showcases Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem performing the world premiere of American composer Robert Chumbley's Whispers and Cries, a musical exploration of Beethoven's growing deafness. This premiere takes place in collaboration with the Dranoff Foundation in Miami. Also on the program is Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 in the arrangement for two pianos by Franz Liszt.
• The first Guest Artist Concert Tuesday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m. features Music Institute alumna Inna Faliks and Daniel Schlosberg performing Mahler's 6th Symphony, arranged by Alexander von Zemlinsky.
• The second Guest Artist Concert Friday, July 20 at 7:30 p.m. features Italian duo Vincenzo Maxia and Giovanni Carmassi performing Liszt's "Faust" Symphony.
• Other concerts to be scheduled include Music Institute faculty members Mio Isoda and Matthew Hagle performing Brahms's Sonata in F Minor for Two Pianos, Op. 34b and the return of Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, featuring pianists Fiona Queen and Kay Kim and percussionists Josh Graham and John Corkill. There also will be a new series of lunchtime faculty concerts. For more details, visit musicinst.org/chicago-duo-piano-festival.

All concerts take place at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.
Tickets are $30 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $10 for students
and are available at 847-905-1500, ext. 108.

Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem
Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem, artists in residence and faculty members at the Music Institute, enjoy an international career as proponents of music for both piano duet and two keyboards. The Washington Post has described them as "consummate practitioners of pianism, in complete sympathy with and understanding of each other and Schubert," and Gramophone Magazine called their Schubert recordings "utterly charming." The duo has appeared with orchestras internationally, including the Chicago Philharmonic and the Vienna Tonkünstler. They have performed in recitals throughout the U.S. and Europe. Recent concerts include a 25th anniversary celebration concert at Merkin Hall in New York, an appearance at the Gina Bachauer Festival in Salt Lake City, and two recitals in Odessa, Ukraine. Aebersold and Neiweem have commissioned significant new works for the piano duo, including pieces by Joseph Turrin and Patrick Byers. The duo's CDs on the Summit label include Four Hand Reflections and music of Brahms and Schubert. In 2011, they presented two concerts broadcast live on WFMT to celebrate the Liszt bicentennial and organized the "Liszt 200" International Duo Piano Competition at Nichols Concert Hall.

John Corkill
Percussionist John Corkill serves on the faculty at the University of Chicago, Loyola University, and the Merit School of Music. As a chamber musician, he has played with Third Coast Percussion, Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Dal Niente, and the University of Chicago New Music Ensemble. He has held residencies at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Yellow Barn Festivals. He has also garnered awards at the Yale Chamber Music Competition and the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition. In the realm of orchestral percussion, Corkill has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, Elgin Symphony, and NOVUS Orchestra. He has also worked with many of today's leading orchestral conductors and composers, including Marin Alsop, Peter Oundjian, Reinbert de Leeuw, Matthias Pintscher, Aaron Jay Kernis, Augusta Reed Thomas, David Lang, Oliver Knussen, and Krzysztof Penderecki. Corkill received his bachelor of music degree cum laude from Northwestern University and master of music degree from the Yale University School of Music. His teachers include Robert van Sice, Michael Burritt, and James Ross.

Josh Graham
Josh Graham is a percussionist based in the Chicago area. He currently performs with F-PLUS and Apres L'Histoire, is program director and percussionist for the Zafa Collective, and has toured with Ensemble Dal Niente. Graham has appeared in performance throughout the U.S. and Canada, performing at the International Computer Music Festival, Society of Composers International Conference, International Clarinet Association "ClarinetFest," and multiple Michigan Days of Percussion. He was a fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival and for two summers was the percussion fellow with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival and School. In 2014, he performed as soloist with the group on Steve Mackey's "Micro-Concerto." Graham seeks to broaden his art form and has premiered works by Dave Hollinden, Lera Auerbach, Timo Andres, Thomas Kotcheff, and Aaron Holloway-Nahum, among many others. He currently serves on the faculty at Triton College and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp during the summer and holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Central Michigan University.

Kay Kim
Pianist Kay Kim has been a pianist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's conductor's rehearsals for Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, Andrey Boreyko, Stephane Deneve, Manfred Hoeneck, Leonidas Kavacos, Hannah Chang, Ian Bostrich, Mathieu Dufour, and Branford Marsalis. She performed with the Stradivari Society artists and collaborated with Chicago Chamber Musicians. As a member of Trio Chicago and Friends for seven years, she toured to Jordan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Djibouti, Paraguay, Australia, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Papua New Guinea and Botswana. Kim has performed in CSO concerts with sopranos Sasha Cook and Jennifer Zeltan and members of CSO, given a recital with violinist Fumiaki Miura at Ravinia's Bennett Gordon Hall Series, performed in Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra's subscription concerts, performed with Grammy winner Howard Levy, performed in Lyric Opera's chamber music series and assisted members of Dallas Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, New York City Ballet Orchestra, and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society in recitals. Kim currently serves as a full-time staff pianist and instructor of collaborative piano at Northeastern Illinois University and taught previously at Jacob School of Music at Indiana University, Northwestern University, and the Juilliard School. A native of South Korea, Kim attended Seoul National University for her undergraduate study and University of Michigan for her graduate degrees. She holds a doctoral degree in piano performance from Northwestern University.

Fiona Queen
Canadian pianist Fiona Queen holds a master's degree in piano performance from Northwestern University and a bachelor of music in piano performance from Boston University, where she was awarded the Dean's Scholarship. A seven-time National Finalist of the Canadian Music Competitions, she counts among her teachers Jeanneane Dowis, Anthony di Bonaventura, Tong-Il Han, and Ursula Oppens. She has given recitals in Canada, the U.S., and London, England, and has performed as soloist with numerous chamber ensembles and orchestras, including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Alea III, Crosscurrents, KLANG, and The Chicago Chamber Orchestra. An accomplished orchestral and chamber musician, she has performed with the Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Joffrey Ballet, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Symphony II, and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. Queen has participated in master classes with John Browning, Maria Curcio Diamand, and Fou T'song and has been featured on radio and television broadcasts throughout the U.S. and Canada. As the co-founder of KLANG New Music Ensemble, she has worked with noted composers Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, George Crumb, Leslie Bassett, John Corigliano, Lucas Foss, and Bright Sheng.

Music Institute of Chicago
The Music Institute of Chicago is dedicated to transforming lives through music education. Founded in 1931, the Music Institute has grown to become one of the largest and most respected community music schools in the nation. Offering musical excellence built on the strength of its distinguished faculty, commitment to quality, and breadth of programs and services, the Music Institute is a member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Pre-collegiate Arts Schools (ACCPAS). Each year, the Music Institute's teachers reach thousands of students of all ages and levels of experience. Music Institute locations include Chicago, Evanston, Winnetka, Lincolnshire, Lake Forest, and Downers Grove. In addition, the Music Institute is proud of its longstanding partnership with the Chicago Public Schools through its Arts Link program. The Music Institute offers lessons and classes, and concerts through its Community Music School, Academy, and Nichols Concert Hall. For more information, visit musicinst.org.