The Faculty Artist Series presents the Collaborative Pianists Faculty Tuesday, September 3, at 7:30 p.m., in Kilbourn Hall, at the Eastman School of Music. Five Eastman collaborative pianists (Sylvie Beaudette, Chiao-Wen Cheng, Irina Lupines, Priscilla Yuen, and Beryl Garver) partner with each other to offer a highly varied program. The concert will feature Lowell Lieberman’s Daydream and Nightmare, Op. 94, Amy Marcy Beach’s Summer Dreams, Op. 47, Astor Piazzolla’s La Muerte Del Ángel, Anton Rubinstein’s Le Démon, Quodlibet on American Folk Tunes, Ingolf Dahl’s The Fancy Blue Devil’s Breakdown, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 1 Fantasie-Tableaux,”Op. 5, II. La nuit…L’amour..., and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre Op. 40.
Born in Québec, pianist Sylvie Beaudette’s vast and expansive career includes work and performing as a collaborative artist, vocal and instrumental coach, soloist, teacher, and administrator. She has performed with several artists and groups in Canada, USA, and Switzerland, and has recorded with Centaur Records, Oasis, and MMC Recordings. A graduate from the Eastman School of Music, Dr. Beaudette worked as a faculty member at Syracuse University, California State University in Chico, and the Université de Sherbrooke in Québec. She gave lectures in Switzerland and Finland and worked as French coach at the Houston Grand Opera. She was awarded the 2007 citation from the New York State Music Teachers Association for her musical contributions as a whole. Dr. Beaudette is currently working at the Eastman School of Music as Director of Summer@Eastman and as Assistant Professor of Chamber Music and Accompanying. She is the founder and former artistic director of Eastman’s Women in Music Festival (2005-2014). She also serves on the The Key Bank Rochester Fringe Festival’s advisory board and as co-chair of the Eastman Centennial Planning Committee.
Taiwanese pianist Chiao-Wen Cheng has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States and Asia. Her solo engagements include the Fort Worth Symphony, Greece Symphony, and Taiwan Shin-Min Orchestra. Cheng has won numerous piano competitions and awards, including First Prizes at the Schubert Club Competition (2012); the Piano Texas International Academy and Festival Concerto Competition (2010); the Excellence in Accompanying Award at the Eastman School of Music (2010); and the Clara Ascherfeld Award in Excellence in Accompanying at Peabody Institute (2009). A vibrant and dedicated chamber musician, Cheng has become a sought-after collaborative partner. She has been Staff Pianist at International Bowdoin Music Festival and Collaborative Pianist at the Perlman’s Music Program. Cheng has also enjoyed presenting solo piano recitals in major venues around the world. For this coming season, she will be touring with Ying Quartet to China and will be performing at society for Chamber Music concerts in Rochester. Cheng is an Assistant Professor of Accompanying at the Eastman School of Music and a Piano Instructor at Eastman Community Music School.
Beryl Garver, Assistant Professor of Accompanying, is an accomplished collaborative pianist and vocal coach. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and James Madison University, she was formerly employed as a pianist, coach and conductor in Virginia. She began working at the Eastman School in 2001, as the first staff pianist in the Winds, Brass and Percussion department, collaborating with guest artists, faculty and students for recitals and master classes. Her position grew to include both studio accompanying and vocal coaching for the undergraduate voice majors. Currently, she teaches the Undergraduate Voice Repertoire classes, the Undergraduate Accompanying class, and French diction and English diction for singers. Ms. Garver made her international recital debut with internationally acclaimed tenor Gregory Kunde at the 2007 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy; they made a return appearance in 2009 during the 30thanniversary of the Festival. She has many years of choral accompanying experience, as well as music directing for musical theatre. Ms. Garver was previously on the faculty of the Community Music Program and the Collegiate Division at Nazareth College of Rochester as an accompanist and coach.
Irina Lupines has built a diversified career as collaborative pianist, vocal and instrumental coach, and teacher. She actively performs throughout North America as a chamber musician and recitalist, frequently performing at the Eastman Faculty Artist Concert Series, Eastman Summer Concert Series, Eastman at Washington Square, and 2 Pianos 4 Hands Concert Series in Chicago. As a collaborative pianist, Dr. Lupines has performed with Bonita Boyd, Paul Edmund-Davies, Michel Debost, Aralee Dorough, Carlo Jans, Cecilie Løken, Lorna McGhee, Guy Johnston, Renee Jolles, Oleh Krysa, Robert Langevin, Ian Mullin, Amy Porter, Paula Robison, Gary Schocker, Irina Stachinskaya, Carol Wincenc, Jim Walker, and many of the Rochester area professional musicians. Dr. Lupines has performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, for the Europafest in Bucharest (Romania), and served as official pianist for the National Flute Convention and International Society of Bassists. She has also accompanied master classes with distinguished artists such as William Bennett, Michel Debost, Sir James Galway, Lady Jeanne Galway, Yo -Yo Ma, and Carol Wincenc. Dr. Lupines is Assistant Professor in Accompanying at the Eastman School of Music and Instructor in Piano and Collaborative Piano at the Eastman Community Music School. She was the recipient of both the 2013 Award for Excellence in Accompanying and the 2014 Barr Award from the Eastman School of Music, where she earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree. Dr. Lupines also holds degrees from the L’viv National Music Academy in Ukraine and the Belarusian State Academy of Music.
Pianist Priscilla Yuen enjoys a rich and varied career as a soloist, collaborator, teacher and administrator. Currently a faculty member at the Eastman School of Music, Ms. Yuen regularly supports instrumentalists and singers from across the Eastman community as they prepare for recitals, competitions and recordings. Additionally, she serves on the piano faculty at the Rochester Institute of Technology and as pianist at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY. As a collaborative pianist, Ms. Yuen has performed at colleges and universities across the United States, as well as at venues such as the Kennedy Center and New York City’s Yamaha Hall. Serving as Festival pianist at the International Trombone Festival, she has performed with Jörgen van Rijen (Royal Concertgebeow Orchestra), Norman Bolter (retired, Boston Symphony), Larry Zalkind (Eastman School of Music faculty), Jeremy Moeller (Chicago Lyric Opera), Ralph Sauer (retired, Los Angeles Philharmonic), Kenneth Thompkins (Detroit Symphony), Peter Steiner (Vienna Philharmonic), Matthew Guilford (National Symphony) and Justin Clark (Bern Symphony). Other musicians with whom she has collaborated include violinist Charles Castleman (Frost School of Music faculty), tubist Carol Jantsch (Philadelphia Orchestra), pianist Graham Johnson (Guildhall School of Music faculty), trumpeter David Bamonte (Oregon Symphony) and noted composer Steven Stucky (Cornell University faculty). Since 2016, Ms. Yuen has performed extensively across the country with Eastman faculty trombonist Mark Kellogg.
The Faculty Artist Series is generously supported by Patricia Ward-Baker.
Tickets for Eastman’s Faculty Artist Series are $10 for the general public and free to current Season Subscribers and UR ID holders. Tickets can be purchased at the Eastman Theatre Box Office, 26 Gibbs Street, 10 a.m.- 3 p.m., Monday-Friday; by phone (585) 274-3000; or online at http://eastmantheatre.org
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About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training. The current dean is Jamal Rossi, appointed in 2014.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Guggenheim Fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community.