Washington Univ. Announces Danforth Chamber Music Series, 9/20

Washington University announces their Danforth University Center Chamber music series, which begins on September 20th.

Celebrated pianist Hyunsoon Whang will join her husband, pianist Thomas Labé, for an evening of music by Schubert and Ravel Nov. 16 as part of the Danforth University Chamber Music Series. Photo by Andrus Clark.

The husband-and-wife duo of Thomas Labé and Hyunsoon Whang will perform music of Schubert and Ravel.

Whang began her piano studies at the age of four and started playing public concerts at age 12. Since then, she has performed in more than 500 concerts across the United States, Europe, Canada, the Cayman Islands and Japan, as well as in her native Korea.

She has appeared as a soloist with noted conductors Leonard Slatkin, Joel Revzen, Miriam Burns and the late Nicholas Harsanyi. She holds the McMahon Endowed Chair in Music at Cameron University in Oklahoma.

Labé has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including those of Chattanooga and Houston, and in recital at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Staatstheater Darmstadt in Germany, the Midem Classique in Cannes, France, and the International Piano Festival Monterrey in Mexico.

His extensive discography includes The Virtuoso Johann Strauss (1991), Liszt: Works for Violin and Piano (1997), Howard Hanson: Works for Piano (2000) and Dedication: Music of Robert Schumann (2008).

As a duo, Labé and Whang have performed in Germany and France and recorded Alexis Weissenberg's surrealistic musical Nostalgie (1992) for the Arkadia label.

Viola da gambist Elizabeth Macdonald, director of strings in Washington University's Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, and harpsichordist Charles Metz, PhD, will launch WUSTL's fall Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series at 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20.

The concert, titled "The Golden Age of the Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord," will highlight music for these two instruments, which reached their "golden age" during the first half of the 18th century.

The program will feature works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Antoine Forqueray (1671-1745) and Marin Marais (1656-1728).

The performance is free and open to the public and takes place in the Goldberg Formal Lounge of WUSTL's Danforth University Center, 6475 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-5566 or e-mail kschultz@artsci.wustl.edu.

Macdonald studied viola da gamba at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio and in Paris, and has given concerts in the United States, Germany, Holland and France. Her instrument, a seven-string bass viol modeled after a 1695 Tielke, was made in St. Louis in 2004 by Robert Clemens.

As a cellist, she has held positions with the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow, and performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony, among others.

Her CD, Cellorific, (2003) features performances of her arrangements of music for multiple cellos.

Charles Metz studied piano at Penn State University and began his harpsichord studies through private lessons with the legendary Igor Kipnis. While earning a doctorate in historical performance practice at Washington University, he studied with former artist-in-residence Trevor Pinnock.

More recently, Metz has worked with Lisa Goode Crawford and William (Webb) Wiggins at the Oberlin Conservatory.

Metz appears regularly with The Bach Society of Saint Louis, the Collegium Vocale, the Saint Louis Baroque and other local ensembles. Recent national appearances include concerts in Chicago, Oberlin and Louisville, as well as the Jewell Early Music Summer Festival in Liberty, Mo., and a solo recital on several antique instruments at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

In July, Metz recorded the Tisdale Virginal Book, music of the Elizabethan period, on his 400-year-old Italian Virginal. A CD will be released later this year.

Peter Henderson, an assistant professor of music at Maryville University, will perform a program highlighting Beethoven's "'Waldstein' Sonata in C major, op.53."

A versatile pianist who performs in solo, chamber and orchestral settings, Henderson is a frequent ensemble keyboardist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO). He made his first appearance as a subscription-concert soloist with the SLSO in January 2008 and, over the past five seasons, regularly has delivered pre-concert talks from the Powell Hall stage.

In addition, Henderson performs with the St. Louis-based Ilex Piano Trio, which includes his wife, Kristin Ahlstrom, a violinist with the SLSO, and SLSO cellist Anne Fagerburg.

 

 

Windfire, an ensemble specializing in the performance of flute and percussion music from around the world, is led by the husband-and-wife duo of John and Paula Kasica.

 

 

John is distinguished percussion chair with the SLSO, which he joined in 1971. He also enjoys the distinction of having made more solo appearances with major American orchestras - 70 - than any other orchestral percussionist in U.S. history.

As a chamber music soloist, he has appeared with Musica Aeterna in New York, Suzuki and Friends in Indianapolis, the Da Camera in Houston and the touring ensemble Summit Brass, as well as Chamber Music of St. Louis.

Paula plays as an extra flute with the SLSO and has performed with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Ballet Orchestra of St. Louis, the Aspen Music Festival and the Bach at the Seminary Series.

She is on the faculty of the Christian Performing Arts Festival and also teaches at Webster University, Missouri Baptist University and Dayspring School of the Arts.

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