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Tickets $15 at the door
(Additional "piano fund" donations welcome. :)
David Carter (cello) & Esther Wang (piano) present an intimate performance of Beethoven's cello sonatas. And they have graciously offered to donate all concert proceeds toward an endowment to care for the Hot Spot grand piano. Thank you David and Esther!
Beethoven's life and music, as seen through the music for cello and piano.
Beethoven's music for cello and piano reflects each of the three styles of his career: the Classical influenced early works, the heroic and noble middle period works, and as deafness closed in his introspective later works. The sonatas were written for some of the great cellists of the time, and either Beethoven himself or several of his gifted pupils and acquaintances.
Join pianist Esther Wang and cellist David Carter as they perform excerpts from three different cello sonatas, describing details of both the music and what was happening in Beethoven's life at the time of composition. They will show how the style of composition changed over the span of the sonatas, and will also speak about how the music is put together. No prior musical knowledge is necessary. This program is a benefit to fund an endowment for the Hot Spot Music grand piano.
This program will include movements from:
Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 5 #2
Sonata in C major for Piano and Cello, Op. 102 #1
Sonata in A major for Piano and Cello, Op. 69
About the artists:
Esther Wang (piano) is an active soloist and collaborator performs in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. The San Jose Mercury News has called Wang "a forceful, take-charge kind of artist with personality...spirited and vital," and the Double Reed journal called her a "magnificent accompanist." A devoted chamber musician, Esther often collaborates with members of the New York Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as with colleagues from around the country. She received the Bachelor of Music at Baylor University, where she studied with Roger Keyes. She continued studies with Frank Weinstock at the University of Cincinnati, earning the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. She also studied privately with renowned pianist Lilian Kallir and attended the Tanglewood, Kneisel Hall, and Taos Chamber Music summer festivals. Wang is an enthusiastic teacher and adjudicator. She has served on faculties at The University of Texas at Austin, University of WI-Oshkosh, University of WI-Platteville, Baylor University, Lutheran Summer Music, the New England Music Camp, and Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, CT. She performs and lectures on J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier as a member of The Bach Four and has recorded solo and chamber works by Jan Radzynski on the Centaur label. In the summers, she teaches at the Interlochen Arts Camp and the Adamant Music School (VT). Dr. Wang is the Ethel and Edgar F. Johnson Professor of Fine Arts at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.
David Carter (cello) is Professor of Music at St. Olaf College. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, Indiana University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Carter's principal cello teachers include Robert Jamieson, Gary Hoffman, Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. Though legally blind as a result of the retinal disease choroideremia, Dr. Carter maintains an active performing and teaching schedule. He is Artistic Director of the Bridge Chamber Music Festival, performed for many years as cellist of the Melius Trio, and recently served as Cello Editor for the Minnesota String Teachers Association newsletter, StringNotes. Dr. Carter has served as Principal Cellist of the Wichita Symphony, performing as soloist with that ensemble in addition to the Minnesota Orchestra under Neville Marriner and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He served on the faculty of Wichita State University, as well as the Rocky Ridge Music Center, the Red Lodge Music Festival, and currently the Interlochen Summer Music Camp. Recent performances in clude concerto appearances with the Century Chamber Orchestra and the Winona State University Chamber Orchestra, and recitals and master classes at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Interlochen Arts Academy. Over a 30 year career of college teaching, Dr. Carter's students have gone on to study cello at some of the nation's top graduate schools, including the New England Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Rice University and Indiana University. Cello students from St. Olaf hold positions in major symphony orchestras and university teaching positions, while many non-major students continue their life-long passion for music and the cello. Dr. Carter can be heard on two recordings on the Centaur label, in “Three Pieces for Solo Cello” by Phillip Rhodes and works by Amy Beach, and on the Limestone label with the Melius Trio in trios by Mendelssohn, Clarke and Peter Hamlin. He performs on a cello made by David Folland (2008, Northfield, MN.)