The ARTS COUNCIL OF MISSISSIPPI COUNTY
Presents:
THE KOBAYASHI/GRAY DUO
Laura Kobayashi, violin
Susan Keith Gray, piano
Saturday, March 10, 2018
7:00 p.m.
BIOGRAPHIES
Laura Kobayashi leads a varied career as a performer and pedagogue. She currently resides in Northern Virginia. She has participated in numerous music festivals in the United States, Puerto Rico, Norway, Argentina and Brazil and has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle, Spokane, and Grand Junction Symphonies, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony Chamber Orchestra and the Salta Chamber Orchestra in Salta, Argentina. In addition to performing with duo partner/pianist, Susan Keith Gray, Dr. Kobayashi also performs as a member of Polaris Piano Trio and the Main Street Chamber Players (Fairfax, VA) and is a founding member of the Main Street Music Studios in Fairfax, VA. She has been honored as a recipient of several awards in her career, including the VASTA (Virginia State Chapter of ASTA) Outstanding String Teacher Award and the “Excellence in Teaching” Award by the Division of Music and College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University. Dr. Kobayashi’s past teaching positions include serving on the faculties at West Virginia University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the University of Georgia and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, as well as performing as a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. She studied violin with Dorothy DeLay, Paul Kantor, Andrew Jennings and Denes Zsigmondy and has performed in the master classes of Nathan Milstein, Arthur Grumiaux, Ruggiero Ricci and Gyorgy Pauk. Chamber music studies have been with members of the Juilliard, Tokyo and American String Quartets as well as with collaborative pianists, Robert McDonald and Samuel Sanders. Dr. Kobayashi earned degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University and the Doctor of Musical Arts from The University of Michigan.
Susan Keith Gray has performed throughout the United States, South America, Norway, South Africa, Japan, Panama, Taiwan and Thailand. Solo acknowledgements include prizes in the MTNA Collegiate Artist Competition, and appearances with orchestras including the South Dakota Symphony (2011), Dakota Chamber, Spartanburg Symphony and Savannah Symphony. An acclaimed collaborative pianist, she is a member of the University of South Dakota Rawlins Piano Trio and the Kobayashi/Gray Duo. Other recent collaborations include recitals with violinists Anna Vayman and Scott St. John, cellist Keith Robinson, bassist Barry Greene, flutists Linda Chatterton and Martha Councell, trumpeter Joe Burgstaller and singers Carla Connors and Scott Piper. She has served on collaborative piano faculties at the Music Academy of the West and for national competitions. Performance specialties include music of women composers, American piano trios and African-American Art Song that she has recorded on the Azica, Albany and Videmus labels. A frequent presenter at conferences such as College Music Society and MTNA, she served as keynote speaker for the first biennial Piano Pedagogy Symposium at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 2009. Gray is a recipient of the Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching at The University of South Dakota where she has been on the faculty since 1995. She teaches piano and pedagogy and founded and directs the graduate program in Collaborative Piano. Her degrees are in piano performance from Converse College and the University of Illinois and a DMA in Chamber Music and Accompanying from The University of Michigan.
Laura Kobayashi leads a varied career as a performer and pedagogue. She currently resides in Northern Virginia. She has participated in numerous music festivals in the United States, Puerto Rico, Norway, Argentina and Brazil and has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle, Spokane, and Grand Junction Symphonies, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony Chamber Orchestra and the Salta Chamber Orchestra in Salta, Argentina. In addition to performing with duo partner/pianist, Susan Keith Gray, Dr. Kobayashi also performs as a member of Polaris Piano Trio and the Main Street Chamber Players (Fairfax, VA) and is a founding member of the Main Street Music Studios in Fairfax, VA. She has been honored as a recipient of several awards in her career, including the VASTA (Virginia State Chapter of ASTA) Outstanding String Teacher Award and the “Excellence in Teaching” Award by the Division of Music and College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University. Dr. Kobayashi’s past teaching positions include serving on the faculties at West Virginia University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the University of Georgia and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, as well as performing as a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. She studied violin with Dorothy DeLay, Paul Kantor, Andrew Jennings and Denes Zsigmondy and has performed in the master classes of Nathan Milstein, Arthur Grumiaux, Ruggiero Ricci and Gyorgy Pauk. Chamber music studies have been with members of the Juilliard, Tokyo and American String Quartets as well as with collaborative pianists, Robert McDonald and Samuel Sanders. Dr. Kobayashi earned degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University and the Doctor of Musical Arts from The University of Michigan.
Susan Keith Gray has performed throughout the United States, South America, Norway, South Africa, Japan, Panama, Taiwan and Thailand. Solo acknowledgements include prizes in the MTNA Collegiate Artist Competition, and appearances with orchestras including the South Dakota Symphony (2011), Dakota Chamber, Spartanburg Symphony and Savannah Symphony. An acclaimed collaborative pianist, she is a member of the University of South Dakota Rawlins Piano Trio and the Kobayashi/Gray Duo. Other recent collaborations include recitals with violinists Anna Vayman and Scott St. John, cellist Keith Robinson, bassist Barry Greene, flutists Linda Chatterton and Martha Councell, trumpeter Joe Burgstaller and singers Carla Connors and Scott Piper. She has served on collaborative piano faculties at the Music Academy of the West and for national competitions. Performance specialties include music of women composers, American piano trios and African-American Art Song that she has recorded on the Azica, Albany and Videmus labels. A frequent presenter at conferences such as College Music Society and MTNA, she served as keynote speaker for the first biennial Piano Pedagogy Symposium at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 2009. Gray is a recipient of the Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching at The University of South Dakota where she has been on the faculty since 1995. She teaches piano and pedagogy and founded and directs the graduate program in Collaborative Piano. Her degrees are in piano performance from Converse College and the University of Illinois and a DMA in Chamber Music and Accompanying from The University of Michigan.
PROGRAM
“D’un matin de Printemps” (1917-18) Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) “Midsummer Moon” (1924) Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) The Deserted Garden (pub.1933) Florence Price Elfentanz (n.d.) (1887-1953) Dansuri Românești (pe motive culese de Bartok) (pub. 1949) Hilda Jerea [Roumanian Dances (in the manner of Bartόk)] (1919-1980) I. Cânťec de joc (Dance Song) II. Doina (Elegiac Folksong) III. Joc unguresc (Hungarian Dance) IV. Cântecul moţului din vale (când a șezut la oile furate) The song of the countryman from the valley (when the sheep were stolen) V. Cânťec de joc VI. Joc din fluer (Shepherd’s Pipe Dance) VII. Din drâmboaie [Playing the drymba (Jew’s Harp)] INTERMISSION Impressions (n.d.) Gwyneth Rollin 1. Children Playing/Moderato (b. 1944) 2. Snow/Adagio 3. Pups/Allegro 4. Rose/Adagio 5. City/Presto Much Ad About Nothing Suite, op.11 (1920) Erich Wolfgang Korngold 1. Mädchen im Brautgemach (The Maiden in the Bridal Chamber) (1897-1957) 2. Holzapfel und Schlewein (Dogberry and Verges); March of the Watch 3. Garenscene (Scene in the Garden) 4. Mummenschanz (Masquerade); Hornpipe |
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