Francis Poulenc’s 1940s Sonata for Cello and Piano carries a notorious reputation for its diabolical difficulty. After dreaming of stepping up to the challenge, I engraved and performed a preliminary...
This lecture recital draws from my doctoral research into the legacy of Maurice Vieux (1878–1951), the Paris conservatory professor who shaped the modern French viola school. While his pedagogical works...
What sounds might a visitor to Monticello have heard? Music was often in the air - Thomas Jefferson was a violinist, and nearly every member of his family also played...
French composer Betsy Jolas (b. 1926) has written a body of captivating and beguiling works for the viola. While she once joked that she belonged to the musical movement called...
What can AI do in music? No, not to generate, not to steal and copy, nor taking away the fundamentals and essences of human value: to create and to express....
This lecture recital with violist Sheila Browne and pianist Lisa Leonard will explore these two works- Lera Auerbach’s Arcanum and Jennifer Higdon’s Viola Sonata, for a fresh perspective on two...
This lecture-recital introduces a remarkable rediscovery in the viola repertoire: the Suite for Solo Viola (1940) by German composer Reinhard Oppel (1878–1941). Written in the final year of his professorship...
Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Concerto Romantico for Viola and Chamber Orchestra is a powerful gem of viola writing that most violists have never heard. Premiered in 1957 by Walter Trampler, Concerto Romantico...
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867–1944) stands as a monumental figure in the history of American classical music, renowned for her achievements as the first American woman to gain widespread recognition...
Over the past 30+ years, longer than I have been playing the viola, I have been exploring my family tree, absorbing the experiences of my ancestors, learning stories from my...
For years, small musical ideas – melodic fragments, textures, and colors – have occasionally visited me, but until very recently I had never considered writing them down or formally attempting...
Belgian composer Joseph Jongen (1873–1953), famous for his organ and chamber works, contributed significantly to the viola repertoire, yet lesser-known. Jongen collaborated with Lionel Tertis and formed the Belgian Piano...