The
University at Albany Department of Music is pleased to present Kevin Champagne’s Piano Quintet on Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 7pm in the Recital Hall of the
Performing Arts Center on the
uptown campus. All of the works
on the program are composed by Kevin Champagne -- some have been written
expressly for piano quintet and others are transcriptions of music previously
written for other instruments. The composer will discuss the works and the
compositional processes. Performers will
include pianist Victoria von Arx,
violinists Holly Larson and Elizabeth Silver, violist Susan St. Amour and
cellist Erica Pickhardt.
Champagne has been a faculty member
at UAlbany for six years and conductor of the University Concert Band. He has also been Band Director in the Lansingburgh Central School District
for twenty-one years. Champagne has served as president of the
Rensselaer County School Music Association since 2001 and is a founding board
member of the Troy Orchestra in which he plays percussion. He has played guitar
and bass in pit orchestras for local theatre productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Guys
and Dolls and Evita. He is guitarist
and vocalist for two local bands, The Champagne Hangovers and Bugnut. Champagne has been
composing music of various genres since he began playing guitar at the age of
twelve.
Victoria von Arx is
assistant professor of music at UAlbany. She was recently invited to perform in Weill
Recital Hall in New York City in the annual recital
of the Adamant Music School.
A long-time resident of New York State
and New York City, she served on the faculties
of Syracuse University,
the Metropolitan School
for the Arts in Syracuse, the Third Street Music
School Settlement in New York City and the Adamant Music
School in Vermont. During a seven-year stint in Michigan, she taught at
the Flint School of Performing Arts and the University of Michigan-Flint.
Holly Larson has
concertized extensively across Canada,
the U.S. and Europe. She has played and toured with
Montreal-based Chamber Orchestras, has completed two national tours of Broadway
shows and has toured with England's
Carl Rosa Opera Company. Recently having relocated to the NY State
Capital Region, Larson plays with local orchestras. She is also a
dedicated teacher having taught at the McGill Conservatory and is in demand as
an adjudicator at music festivals.
Violinist Elizabeth
Silver has been a member of the Albany Symphony Orchestra since 1985. She has
appeared as soloist with the Albany Symphony, Siena College Orchestra and St.
Cecilia and Lake George chamber orchestras. She is a founding member of the Eribeth
Chamber Players and performs regularly with the River Quartet. She is also a
member of the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra. She is a faculty member at Berkshire Music
School and Emma Willard
School as well as
teaching privately.
Principal violist
of both the Albany
and Berkshire Symphony Orchestras, Susan St. Amour came to this area in
1965. She frequently performs concerti with both orchestras, among them the Walton
"Viola Concerto", Mozart's "Duo Concertante" and Kubik's
"Concerto for Piano, Viola and Trumpet". St. Amour is an adjunct teacher
of violin and viola at Williams College and at the Hawthorne Valley
Rudolph Steiner
School.
Cellist Erica Pickhardt joined the Albany Symphony Orchestra, where she
is assistant principal cellist, immediately after graduating from Syracuse University's String Fellowship program
with a graduate degree in cello performance. She is also a member of the Hudson
Valley Philharmonic and the Schenectady Symphony. Pickhardt performs frequently
throughout New York
as a guest performer with numerous choral ensembles and as a founding member
of the Eribeth Piano Trio. She is on the faculties of the Berkshire
Community Music
School and Emma Willard and maintains
a private studio in upstate New York.
Tickets are $10 for the general
public, $8 for seniors & UAlbany faculty/staff and $5 for students and
may be purchased through the Performing Arts Center Box Office. For further information, contact the Box Office
at (518) 442-3997 or visit the Performing Arts Center website at www.albany.edu/pac.
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