Pianist Michael Stephen Brown To Participate In 2024 Music@Menlo Summer Festival

American pianist Michael Stephen Brown will return to the 2024 Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival for three concerts on July 21, 25, and 26, 2024.

On July 21, 2024, 4 p.m. PDT, Mr. Brown will be joined by his colleague, violinist Kristin Lee, in a concert exploring the interplay between French and American music, at the Stent Family Hall at Menlo School (50 Valparaiso Ave, Atherton, CA 94027.) This concert is part of Music@Menlo's Carte Blanche Concerts and will highlight programs curated by the artists. The repertoire features compositions by pioneering female composers Lili Boulanger and Amy Beach, as well as works by Debussy, Ravel, Bloch, and Gershwin. Here is the detailed program:

Claude Debussy Violin Sonata in G minor, L. 140 (1917)

Lili Boulanger Deux morceaux for Violin and Piano (1911-14)

Maurice Ravel Violin Sonata no. 2 in G major, op. 45 (1923-27)

Ernest Bloch Violin Sonata no. 2, B. 58, "Poème Mystique" (1924)

Amy Beach Romance for Violin and Piano, op. 23 (1893)

George Gershwin Fantasy on Themes from Porgy and Bess, op. 19 (1937) (arr. Frolov)

Next, on July 25, 2024, 7 p.m. PDT, at the Stent Family Hall at Menlo School, Mr. Brown will participate in a chamber music entitled "Vienna to Paris" and perform Mozart's Quintet in E-flat major for Winds and Piano, K. 452, as well as Françaix's L'heure du berger for Winds and Piano, Op. 20. The program will also include works by Haydn, Fauré, and Ravel. This program will be repeated on July 26, 2024, 7 p.m. PDT, at the Spieker Center for the Arts at Menlo School. This concert will also be livestreamed on the Music@Menlo website. The full program follows:

Franz Joseph Haydn Piano Trio in B-flat major, Hob. XV:20

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quintet in E-flat major for Winds and Piano, K. 452

Gabriel Fauré Fantaisie for Flute and Piano, op. 79

Jean Françaix L'heure du berger for Winds and Piano, op. 20

Maurice Ravel Piano Trio in A minor

Also featured in this concert are clarinetists Jose Franch-Ballester and Tommaso Lonquich, flutist Sooyun Kim, oboist James Austin Smith, pianist Gilbert Kalish, Chelsea Wang, and Wu Han, cellist David Finckel and David Requiro, violinist Chad Hoopes and Kristin Lee, bassoonist Peter Kolkay, and hornists David Byrd-Marrow.

General admission of $95 and $35, $25 livestream access, and discounted tickets for audience members under 30 can be purchased on Music@Menlo's website. For more information please visit pianist Michael Stephen Brown's website.

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