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Concert: Variations on a French Theme
Thursday, October 18, 2018 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
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A salon concert of duos, sonatas and showpieces by Debussy, Auguste Franchomme, Chopin, Fauré, Saint-Saens, Koechlin, and Poulenc. Some historically pertinent tidbits will be explained from the stage by Louise Dubin.
FULL PROGRAM
– Chopin Etude, Op. 25, No. 7, arr. for cello and piano by Auguste Franchomme
– Auguste Franchomme Air Irlandais, Varié, Op. 25, No. 3 for cello and piano
– Chopin Nocturne Op. 55, No. 1 arr. for cello and piano by Franchomme
– Cello Duos performed by Louise Dubin and Julia Bruskin by Franchomme and Fauré, tba
– Saint-Saens The Swan for cello and piano (piano arr. Spencer Myer)
– Koechlin Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano, Op. 66 for cello and piano (Très modéré; Andante quasi adagio; Final: Allegro non troppo)
– Debussy Scherzo for cello and piano
– Poulenc-Gendron Sérénade from Chansons Gaillardes, arr. for cello and piano
– Debussy Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano in D Minor (Lent; Sérénade; Finale)
BIOGRAPHIES
Described as an “artist of refined taste and musicianship” (The Strad), Louise Dubin’s performances take her throughout the US and Europe. Recent appearances include her cello recitals at the American Cathedral in Paris, her VioloncellenSeine 2016 performances at Salle Gaveau and CRR in Paris under the auspices of the French Cello Society, and her recitals at the Festival de Violoncelle de Beauvais 2017. She has also appeared as soloist at Bargemusic, Caramoor and Piccolo Spoleto, and been an invited chamber musician in performances with Daniel Hope (Savannah Music Festival), Stephanie Chase, Philippe Muller, Raphaël Pidoux, the Artaria String Quartet, and the Garth Newel Piano Quartet. She premiered Divertissement, composed for her by Roger Stubblefield, at Lincoln Center. As cellist on Stefon Harris’ African Tarantella album (Blue Note), she performed in Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Hall, the Jazz Standard, and many other venues. Ms. Dubin has served as Principal Cellist of the Auckland Philharmonia, guest Solo Cellist of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, solo cellist of Cirque du Soleil’s Broadway show Paramour, and Principal Cellist of the Charleston Symphony, where her solo concert with the orchestra was lauded as “virtuosic… and soothing, calming the soul” (Charleston Post and Courier). She studied the cello with Tim Eddy and Aldo Parisot while attending Columbia University and Juilliard, and more recently studied with Janos Starker as recipient of the Eva Janzer scholarship at Indiana University. Many projects have sprung from her doctoral research there, including her internationally acclaimed album of debut recordings The Franchomme Project (Delos); lectures at New York University, Arizona State University in Tempe, University of Connecticut in Storrs, and other universities; a 2017 volume of Franchomme’s compositions compiled and introduced by Ms. Dubin (Dover Publications); and an upcoming publication of her cello quartet transcriptions. www.louise-dubin.com
Since her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 17, Julia Bruskin has established herself as one of the premiere cellists of her generation. She performed Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto with conductor Jahja Ling at Avery Fisher Hall and has also been soloist with the Nashville Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Utah Symphony and Pacific Symphony. As a founding member of the Claremont Trio, Ms. Bruskin has toured the country extensively and released six recordings. Her recent CD of music by Beethoven, Brahms, and Dohnanyi was praised by Fanfare Magazine for its “exquisite beauty of sound and expression” and was chosen for BBC Music Magazine’s Critic’s Choice award. Ms. Bruskin plays frequent solo recitals with her husband, Aaron Wunsch, and together they are the artistic directors of the Skaneateles Festival in the Finger Lakes region of New York. In addition she has performed at La Jolla Summerfest, Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Saratoga, Bard, and Norfolk, and toured with the Musicians from Ravinia. Ms. Bruskin is a graduate of the Columbia/Juilliard double degree program, and is a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. http://claremonttrio.com
Gold Medalist of the 2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition, Spencer Myer has been soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Cape Town and Johannesburg Philharmonics, and Beijing’s China National Symphony Orchestra. His 2005 recital/orchestral tour of South Africa included a performance of the five piano concerti of Beethoven with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa. In December 2014 he made his second solo recital appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall. In 2004, he captured First Prize in the 10th UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa, and won the 2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association. He was a member of Astral Artists’ performance roster from 2003 to 2010. An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Jupiter and Pacifica string quartets, the Dorian Wind Quintet, cellists Lynn Harrell and Ralph Kirshbaum, and clarinetist David Shifrin. His growing reputation as a vocal collaborator since winning the 2000 Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition has lead to partnerships with Cardiff Singer of the World winner Nicole Cabell and Wigmore Hall Song Competition winner Martha Guth, among others. Spencer Myer is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, The Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University, and is currently a member of the Piano and Collaborative Piano faculty of Boston’s Longy School of Music of Bard College. His two latest CDs — Piano Rags of William Bolcom and the two Brahms Cello Sonatas with Brian Thornton — were released in 2017 on the Steinway & Sons label. Spencer Myer is a Steinway Artist. www.spencermyer.com
Claude Henry and Laurence Tubiana’s book begins with a measure of the costs of ecological damage—the erosion of biodiversity; air, water, and soil pollution; and the wide-reaching effects of climate change—and then consider the solutions that are either now available or close on the horizon and that may lead to a more sustainable global trajectory. What community-driven or market-based tools can be used to promote sustainable development? How can renewable energy and energy storage advances help us decrease our use of fossil fuels? How can we substitute agroecology for the damaging chemical methods of industrialized agriculture? Is international agreement on climate goals possible? Building on the experience of the most significant climate negotiation of the decade, Earth at Risk shows what a world organized along the principles of sustainability could look like, no matter how optimistic it may seem at the present moment. Though formidable obstacles remain to the realization of this significant transition, Henry and Tubiana present the case for collective initiatives and change that build momentum for implementation and action.
Claude Henry, a physicist turned economist, is a professor of sustainable development at Sciences Po Paris and senior research scholar at Columbia University. He is also currently president of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations. Scott Barrett is the Lenfest Professor of Natural Resource Economics at the School of International and Public Affairs and The Earth Institute. Stephen Heintz is the President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Gavin Schmidt is the Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Event co-sponsored by the Columbia Maison Française, SIPA, the Earth Institute, the Alliance Program, and Columbia University Press.