Happy birthday to American composer, Samuel Barber (1910-1981)! Barber has been one of my favorite composers for solo piano; I love his neo-romantic sound, and incorporation of American folk styles. I’m practicing hard and looking forward to performing his solo piano set, Excursions, Op. 20, in some upcoming April performances at James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA) and…
My work in Germany wrapped up with a whirlwind of performances in Freiberg, Döbeln, and Zwickau. Last Saturday and Sunday, I had the great honor of performing more Brahms-Lieder concerts in the birth house of Robert Schumann. What a historic place with a fantastic museum and a beautiful chamber concert hall—a great privilege for me! The theme…
Things are going really well here in Freiberg—I’ve been learning and performing so much beautiful music by Brahms—it’s quite an experience! Our Liedermatinee performance at Würlitzer Park was well received with three encores and I had the pleasure of performing on a remarkable Bechstein grand piano: it possesses a rich sound, perfect for performing Brahms. This will be my busiest…
This has been an excellent first week in Germany. Well…aside from taking close to four days to recover from jetlag! Due to some recent and unpredictable events, I’ve had to take on nearly twice as much music to learn and perform during these next weeks. Although it is a somewhat stressful way to kickstart this lieder program, I’m happy to take…