Arlene Kies Piano Recital and Master Class Series

Michèle Renoul

Monday, September 12, 2022
8 pm
Johnson Theatre, Paul Creative Arts Center

A passionate musician and pedagogue, French pianist Michèle Renoul shares her knowledge, know-how, and creativity related to the extraordinarily rich art of music. She has been a professor at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg and the Académie Supérieure de Strasbourg since 1994.

In addition to her passion for 16^th and 17^th century repertoire and her work on German Lied, Michèle Renoul actively defends new music creations that allow her to understand and collaborate with contemporary classical music composers. From this approach of adventure and artistic openness, she has worked with the group Accroche-Note between 1996 and 2016. The ensemble has given concerts at major festivals and has performed approximately fifty world premieres by composers such as Xenakis, Dusapin, Mâche, and Manoury. Renoul has performed on numerous CDs produced by Accroche-Note. In solo performance, or as part of a group, she has performed at renown music festivals such as Musica (Strasbourg), Présence (Paris), Trattoriae (Parma, Italy), Venice Biennial, as well as in Spain, the United States, and Australia. 

Following graduation from the Conservatoire de Musique de Lyon, Michèle Renoul began her post-secondary education studying general history at the University of Lyon. She then decided to pursue music as a vocation and was accepted to the Hochschule für Musik of Freiburg, Germany. From a young age, she was able to study with great artists and educators such as Françoise Léage, Anne-Marie Lamy, Elza Kolodin, Vitaly Margulis, Laurent Cabasso, Rena Shereshevskaya, and Ramon Walter. She obtained two Masters degrees, one in solo piano performance and the other in the interpretation of German Lied and French melody, and received additional training in conducting and vocal studies.

Michèle Renoul has recorded a solo CD of Ravel’s piano music in 2017. It received excellent reviews in Classica magazine in France (4 stars), DNA newspaper in Strasbourg, and other publications. In addition, she and her musical partner Elizabeth Vinciguerra have formed "The Keyboard Explorers," an ensemble which has won several prizes in international competitions such as Evian Concours de Projets Pianistiques, Moscow Music Competition, etc.

Nuno Marques

Monday, November 7, 2022
8 pm
Johnson Theatre, Paul Creative Arts Center
 

Award-winning Portuguese pianist Nuno Marques has developed an extensive, international performing career from his current base in New York City, where he directs Porto Pianofest – an international piano festival held annually in Porto, Portugal. He is the festival’s founder and artistic director. A Doctor of Musical Arts, Nuno is a versatile musician, equally comfortable playing solo, chamber music, teaching, or collaborating with other forms of artistic expression.

His most recent concerts took him to renowned music halls and festivals in Europe, Asia and the US, where he played twice at Carnegie Hall, with a scheduled return in November 2019. Nuno Marques has also embarked twice on extensive concert tours in China, and has given public masterclasses in Portugal, Spain, the World Piano Congress in Serbia, Myanmar, China and the US. As a soloist Nuno Marques has performed with the Orquestra do Norte – Portugal, the Artave Orchestra, Jovem Orquestra de Famalicão, and the Orchestra for Myanmar, where he participated in a humanitarian project with young musicians from the Rohingya minority. He has recorded for Antena2 Radio Portugal and Centro Atlântico Editora,

and is a founding member of prizewinning chamber music ensembles, with whom he performed and recorded throughout Europe. With a wide interest in contemporary music, he has also performed with leading contemporary music ensembles, having commissioned and premiered many works for solo piano and ensemble. 

Nuno Marques holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree (DMA) from Rutgers University, where he studied with Min Kwon. He is also a graduate from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, studying with Artur Pizarro. He completed his first Master’s Degree in piano performance at the Royal College of Music, London, with Niel Immelman; and a second Master’s degree in Instrumental Pedagogy from the Aveiro University in Portugal. Having first moved to New York to attend NYU— the Steinhardt School, under the tutelage of José Ramón Méndez— he was awarded the prestigious Reinhold Scholarship and taught classes at the NYU piano department.

Nuno Marques founded Porto Pianofest in 2016. His excitement to support the new generation of pianists and bring the greatest musicians and mentors to his native country has brought this young festival to quick international esteem. Porto Pianofest has since expanded its activity to NYC, and will continue its model of providing performance opportunities and world-class instruction to a number of American cities in the coming year.

Stephen Drury

Thursday, April 6, 2023
8 pm
Johnson Theatre, Paul Creative Arts Center

Pianist and conductor Stephen Drury has performed throughout the world with a repertoire that stretches from Bach to Liszt to the music of today. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Barbican Centre and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and from Arkansas to Seoul. A champion of contemporary music, he has taken the sound of dissonance into remote corners of Pakistan, Greenland and Montana.

Named “Musician of the Year” by the Boston Globe in 1989, Drury has commissioned new works for solo piano from John Cage, John Zorn, John Luther Adams, Terry Riley, and Chinary Ung with funding provided by Meet The Composer. He has performed with Zorn in Paris, Vienna, London, Brussels, and New York, and conducted Zorn's music in Bologna, Boston, Chicago, and in the UK and Costa Rica. In March of 1995 he gave the first performance of Zorn's concerto for piano and orchestra Aporias with Dennis Russell Davies and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. Later that same season he gave the premiere of Basic Training for solo piano, written for him by Lee Hyla. Drury has recorded the music of John Cage, Elliott Carter, Charles Ives, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Colin McPhee, John Zorn, John Luther Adams and Frederic Rzewski, as well as works of Liszt and Beethoven, for Mode, New Albion, Catalyst, Tzadik, Avant, MusicMasters, Cold Blue, New World and Neuma.

Stephen Drury has given masterclasses at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Mannes Beethoven Institute, and Oberlin Conservatory, and in Japan, Romania, Argentina, Costa Rica, Denmark, and throughout the United States, and served on juries for the Concert Artist Guild, Gaudeamus and Orléans Concours International de Piano XXème Siècle Competitions. Drury is artistic director and conductor of the Callithumpian Consort, and he created and directs the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory. Drury earned his undergraduate degree for Harvard College, and has also earned the New England Conservatory's select Artist Diploma. His teachers have included Claudio Arrau, Patricia Zander, William Masselos, Margaret Ott, and Theodore Lettvin, and conducting with Donald Thulean. He teaches at New England Conservatory, where he has directed festivals of the music of John Cage, Steve Reich, and (in 2010) Christian Wolff.

Richard Jeric

Wednesday, December 1, 2021
8 PM
Bratton Recital Hall

free and open to the public

American pianist Richard Jeric is a dynamic soloist, avid collaborator, and committed educator. Noted for “colorful and flawless” performances, he has performed internationally in England, Dublin, Prague, and Beijing and nationally in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Cleveland, Kansas City, Baton Rouge, and Aspen. Richard has performed with the Longmont Symphony and Jefferson City Symphony Orchestras and the Midwest Chamber Ensemble. He has had the high honor to perform for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Having a special affinity for collaborating with vocalists, he has worked with pianists Martin Katz, Graham Johnson, and Warren Jones and sopranos Renée Fleming, Karita Mattila, and Deborah Voigt. Richard is Principal Keyboard of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. He is on faculty at Nicholls State University and international music festivals in Italy and China where he cherishes his time working with the next generation of musicians and educators. 

Hsiang Tu, piano

Thursday, March 10, 2022   8:00 p.m.
Bratton Recital Hall

free and open to the public

Praised by The New York Times for his "eloquent sensitivity," The Boston Intelligencer for his "impeccable technique," and Fanfare for his “Chameleon-like ability to move between composers,” pianist Hsiang Tu has graced the audience with his thematic programs and broad range of repertoire. Dr. Tu is currently working on the complete cycle of piano solo works by Maurice Ravel and thematic recitals featuring animal-themed music. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he debuted in New York at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center as the winner of The Juilliard School Concerto Competition and has performed in venues all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, National Museum Cardiff, and National Recital Hall in Taipei. 

 A prizewinner at the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Iowa International Piano Competition, and the American Paderewski Piano Competition, Hsiang has appeared with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, and the World Civic Orchestra, among others. He has given masterclasses throughout the U.S., including the University of Southern California, Penn State University, Peabody Conservatory Preparatory Division, and the University of Tennessee.

His debut solo CD, Bestiary on Ivory, has recently been released by Bridge Records. The American Record Guide enthusiastically wrote that “Hsiang Tu plays with verve and poetic intensity, giving each creature its artistic due.”

Hsiang recently completed a short residency as a Visiting Professor at the University of Taipei and released an educational outreach video, "The Ivory Menagerie," on YouTube in collaboration with the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation that features interviews, in both English and Chinese, and performances of music inspired by the animal kingdom.  

 Before being appointed as an Assistant Professor of Piano at Virginia Tech in 2019, Dr. Tu taught at the University of New Hampshire, Utah Valley University, and Snow College. He studied with Hung-Kuan Chen, Jerome Lowenthal, and HaeSun Paik, and holds a B.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Calgary and an M.M. and D.M.A. in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School. For more info, please visit hsiangtu.com.

Clavier à Couleurs: An Exhibit of Piano Preludes

Alum Lisa Raposa '99
and Gregory Millar / Millar Piano Duo

Monday, March 23  8:00 p.m.
Bratton Recital Hall

The Arlene Kies Piano Recital and Master Class Series and University of New Hampshire Department of Music brings Toronto-based pianists Gregory Millar and Lisa Raposa (Millar Piano Duo) and artist Antonietta Kies to Durham to present "Clavier à Couleurs: An Exhibit of Piano Preludes".  Part art exhibition and part concert, this event will feature a performance of 24 Preludes, Op. 11 by Alexander Scriabin, and 24 Preludes, Op. 28 by Frédéric Chopin.  Additionally, a new series of 24 landscapes by Kies will be receiving their first US public exhibition.

Clavier à Couleurs: An Exhibit of Piano Preludes successfully premiered at Heliconian Hall in Toronto on November 23, 2019.  The US event will take place in the Bratton Recital Hall of the Paul Creative Arts Center (30 Academic Way, Department of Music at the University of New Hampshire in Durham) on Monday, March 23 at 8:00pm, and include a "Session with the Artist."  Admission is free and open to the public.

Kies' paintings, collectively titled "Poetics", take Scriabin's music as their inspiration.  The artist captures on canvas a personal response to the mood and emotional content suggested by each prelude.  During the performance of Scriabin's pieces by Raposa, images of the paintings will be projected, giving the audience the opportunity to contemplate the connections between the art and the music. Following a brief intermission, the evening will conclude with Millar's performance of Chopin's piano preludes, the collection upon which Scriabin modeled his own.  This will be accompanied by projections of descriptive titles penned by German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow and French pianist Alfred Cortot that will invite audience members to paint their own pictures in their imaginations as they listen. Music and art are strongly interconnected for Kies, having grown up with two pianist parents:  "When I listen to music, I am one of those people who tends to space out a little, daydream... I inevitably start seeing pictures and thinking about feelings that the music relates to, so it all blends together for me".

The Millar Piano Duo are also a husband-and-wife team and are both graduates of the Eastman School of Music.  They have presented concerts and workshops in Canada and the US, normally playing together in music for four-hands on one or two pianos.  Millar comments on the interesting departure they take for this project: "The two solo piano works are formally and stylistically related, yet we can give them individual interpretations.  Bringing Antonietta into the mix adds a third layer of perspective.  The result is a unique kind of ensemble performance."

Richard Masters

Wednesday, April 1 8:00 p.m.
Bratton Recital Hall

Richard Masters is a soloist, opera coach, chamber musician and orchestral pianist based in Blacksburg, VA, where he is an assistant professor of piano and collaborative piano on the music faculty at Virginia Tech's School of Performing Arts. Significant collaborations include concerts with Grammy-winning baritone Donnie Ray Albert, flutist and composer Valerie Coleman, Colombian mezzo-soprano Marta Senn, and the late Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Barbara Conrad. He has appeared with former Boston Symphony principal trombonist Norman Bolter, former Juilliard String Quartet violinist Earl Carlyss, saxophonist Harvey Pittel, and under the baton of the late Lorin Maazel. Masters has performed solo, chamber and vocal recitals throughout the U.S. and in Europe. As a solo pianist, Masters plays a wide variety of standard and non-traditional repertoire, including contemporary pieces written for or commissioned by him. A strong proponent of contemporary American composers, he has performed world premieres of pieces by Valerie Coleman, Kenneth Frazelle, Jon Jeffrey Grier, David Conte, and many others. He is also an enthusiastic performer of British music from the early 20th century, focusing in particular on the solo piano music of John Ireland. The critic John France wrote on MusicWeb International "Richard Masters approaches [John Ireland's Piano Sonata] with great style and understanding: all the facets of Ireland’s art are present here: ‘…the lyrical, the dramatic, the extrovert and the melancholy – the intense self-questioning and the open, almost naïve, avowals.’" Masters’s recording of music by Australian composer Percy Grainger and his British contemporaries is available on Heritage Records. Before joining the faculty at Virginia Tech, Dr. Masters was principal opera coach for the Butler Opera Center at the University of Texas Austin. Dr. Masters is a Yamaha Artist. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (DMA), the Juilliard School (MM), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (BM). He lives in Blacksburg with his husband Matthew, their daughter Alice, and a pug named Coleslaw. For more information, please visit www.richard-masters.com. Free and open to the public.

An All-Chopin Recital: Ballades and Preludes 
Hsiang Tu, piano

Tuesday, April 7 8:00 p.m.
Bratton Recital Hall
 

Praised by The New York Times for his "eloquent sensitivity" and The Boston Intelligencer for his "impeccable technique," pianist Hsiang Tu has graced the audience with his creative programming and wide range of repertoire. Hsiang is currently working on the complete cycle of piano solo works by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel and thematic recitals featuring animal-themed music and opus-one compositions. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Mr. Tu has performed twice as concerto soloist at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and appeared in venues all over the world, including the National Museum Cardiff, National Recital Hall in Taipei, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the 2019-2020 season, Hsiang Tu has been a recitalist at the New England Conservatory, Beethoven Festival Park City, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Utah Valley University, and Wolfeboro Friends of Music in New Hampshire. A prize winner at the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Iowa International Piano Competition, and the American Paderewski Piano Competition, Hsiang has appeared with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, and the World Civic Orchestra, among others. He has given master classes at Cardiff University, University of Southern California, Penn State University, Loyola University New Orleans, Utah Valley University, and Colorado Mesa University, and adjudicated in New Hampshire Music Teachers Association and Virginia Music Teachers Association competitions. Before being appointed as an Assistant Professor of Piano at Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts, Mr. Tu taught at the University of New Hampshire, Utah Valley University, and Snow College in Utah. He studied with Hung-Kuan Chen, Jerome Lowenthal, and HaeSun Paik, and holds a B.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Calgary and an M.M. and D.M.A. in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School. For more info, please visit hsiangjohntu.com.

Alum Chad Bowles '03

Friday, November 9, 2018 - 7:30 p.m.
Johnson Theatre

A rising star in the piano world, American pianist Chad R. Bowles is increasingly recognized as a master of his instrument and routinely hailed for an ideal combination of innate musicianship and stunning virtuosity. Equally at home with lesser-known gems, as well as the standard repertoire, his performances have brought him to cities across the United States, Canada, and Europe. His numerous recital appearances as a soloist have seen him in venues including many colleges and universities in the United States, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and the La Gesse Festival in France. Mr. Bowles frequently performs benefit recitals and one-hour long concerts which bring classical music to new audiences, in addition to creating an appreciation for some of the forgotten areas of the piano repertoire. A New England native, Mr. Bowles holds a Bachelors degree in Piano Performance from the University of New Hampshire and both a Masters degree and the Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where he served as a teaching assistant in the Keyboard Studies department. His primary teachers include Arlene Kies, Frederick Moyer, Alexander Shtarkman, and legendary American pianist Earl Wild. He makes his home with his wife and young children in Baltimore, Maryland, where he is full-time artist faculty and Chair of the Piano Department at Peabody Preparatory and the Co-Director of the Peabody Piano Academy.

John Salmon, piano 

Friday, March 1, 2019 - 7:30pm
Johnson Theatre

Pianist John Salmon has distinguished himself on four continents, as both a classical and jazz artist.
In the United States, he has given recitals for the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the Discovery Series in Indianapolis, the Van Cliburn Foundation in Fort Worth, and a Busoni Gala at Symphony Space in New York. He has also appeared as recitalist at many colleges and universities across the United States, including Tulane, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati College Conservatory, and San Francisco State University. His broad repertoire covers the classics – Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms – though his involvement with contemporary music is equally strong. Salmon has championed and been at the forefront of performing new works by such celebrated composers as Dave Brubeck, Nikolai Kapustin, and Lalo Schifrin.

Salmon is a frequent guest performer at festivals in the U.S. and Europe, having appeared at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, South Carolina), Piano Festival Northwest (Portland, Oregon), Interlochen Piano Festival (Interlochen, Michigan), International Festival for Creative Pianists (Boise, Idaho), Festival Internacional de Música del Mediterráneo (Cartagena, Spain), and the International Bartók Festival (Szombathely, Hungary). Other special appearances include an all-Liszt recital in Mexico City for the American Liszt Society and an all-Brubeck recital in Washington, DC for the Music Teachers National Association.

John Salmon has been a member of the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music since 1989. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin; the Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School; the Solistendiplom from the r Musik, Freiburg, Germany; and the Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts (philosophy) degrees from Texas Christian University. His awards include the Premio Jaén (1979), the Gina Bachauer Award from Juilliard, a fellowship from the Beethoven Foundation (known nowadays as the American Pianists Association), and prizes from the 1979 University of Maryland (William Kapell Competition) and 1984 Busoni competitions. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1954.

The Millar Piano Duo:
Lisa Raposa and Greg Millar

Monday, November 20, 2017
8 pm
Johnson Theatre, PCAC
 

The Millar Piano Duo has performed together since 2008, appearing on several series including Westwood Concerts (Toronto), Tapestry Concerts (Lancaster, ON), and Sunday Rendez-vous at Stewart Hall (Pointe-Claire, QC).  Earlier this fall, they made their recording debut on Toronto composer Frank Horvat's release Me to We.

Toronto-based pianist Gregory Millar made his professional debut at age 18 with a solo recital in his hometown of Lachine, QC, after winning that city's prestigious mérite culturel award.  He has since led a career as a versatile soloist and chamber musician that has brought him across several Canadian provinces, the Northeastern United States, and a recent European debut in Belgium.  His playing has been described as "compelling... a tour de force... devastatingly beautiful."  (The Muskokan)  Millar is featured on two CDs of chamber music by Toronto composer Frank Horvat — Me to We and The Current Agenda — released this past September.  He gave the premiere of Colin Eatock's Book of Saints in 2010, as well as the first complete performance of Jean Coulthard's 13 Preludes at the conference of the Canadian University Music Society in Victoria, BC in 2013.  He also has appeared on the Belfountain Music Festival in Caledon, ON, Westwood Concerts series in Toronto, and was a guest soloist with the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra.  Millar has partnered with many prominent artists and ensembles, including violinist Jasper Wood, violist George Taylor, soprano Melanie Conly, actress/singer Theresa Tova, Talisker Players of Toronto, and the Venuti String Quartet.  In addition, he served as a resident pianist for the Banff Centre's summer masterclass program, as well as the Kendall Betts Horn Camp in New Hampshire.

Millar also works as a music copyist/engraver for the Royal Conservatory of Music's Teacher Certification Department.

Pianist Lisa Raposa leads an active career as a performer, adjudicator, and instructor in Toronto.  Known for the clarity and precision of her playing, she has appeared as a collaborator in established venues including Koerner Hall, the Toronto Convention Centre, Gallery 345, the Gardiner Museum, and St. Andrew's Church and regularly partners with soprano Zorana Sadiq in recital.  In-demand as an adjudicator, Raposa judged the 2017 Ontario Music Festivals Association provincial competitions and in 2018 will adjudicate for the CCC (Chinese Cultural Centre) Music Festival Toronto Piano Competition and the SSC (South Shore Conservatory) Piano Solo Competition in Hingham, MA amongst others.  Raposa has written advisory reviews of pedagogical repertoire for the Alliance of Canadian New Music Projects and is the founder of Lorne Park Piano Lessons in Mississauga, ON where she teaches students from the early through advanced Royal Conservatory of Music levels.

Prior to moving to Canada, Raposa completed B.A., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees at the University of New Hampshire, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and University of Rochester - Eastman School of Music respectively, where she earned top awards for her solo and collaborative performances.  As a 1999 graduate of UNH, she studied with Arlene Kies for four wonderful years and taught in the Piano Extension Program at its inception.

The Millar Piano Duo is most honored to give the inaugural performance on the Arlene Kies Masterclass and Recital Series.

Steinway Artist Hilary Demske

Tuesday, March 6, 2018
7:30 pm
Bratton Recital Hall, PCAC
 

Steinway Artist Demske is receiving widespread critical acclaim as a "pianist of rare technical finesse and musicality" (Deseret News).   She regularly appears across the globe as a soloist and collaborative pianist, with American Record Guide describing her as full of "splendid panache and assurance", and Fanfare noting that "a composer couldn't ask for more committed or convincing performances". 

Hilary is regularly invited to perform in prestigious venues across multiple continents.  Recent performances include recitals in Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Turkey, Greece, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Tasmania, Mongolia and Taiwan.  She has performed in China annually since 2011, appearing in over 30 cities on multiple tours.   The program will be a performance a piece entitled Fosteriana- Visions of America, a piano commission for the New York Concert Artists and Associates, inspired by the music of Stephen Foster. A major work of some 60 minutes in length, it features character pieces of varied moods and styles that showcase the gamut of Martin’s approach to composing for piano.

Hilary is currently an Associate Professor at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. As the Director of Piano Studies, she directs the piano major program and teaches piano literature, piano pedagogy, and chamber music.