AMAURY COEYTAUX AND HEASOOK RHEE AT WEILL RECITAL HALL
PRESENTED BY MIDAMERICA PRODUCTIONS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2006, 8:00 PM
Violinist and pianist to play diverse program

Mozart: Sonata in E Minor, K.304
Brahms: Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78
Vitali: Chaconne in G Major
Ravel: Sonata in G Major
Wieniawski: Polonaise No. 1 in D Major, Op. 4

MidAmerica Productions, Peter Tiboris Artistic Director, presents its 6th concert of the new 2006-2007 season at Weill Recital Hall on Sunday, October 29, 2006 at 8:30 PM.

Violinist Amaury Coeytaux and pianist Heasook Rhee perform some favorite masterworks of the violin and piano repertoire. Mozart’s E Minor Sonata (1778) – considered by many to be the greatest of his Palatine Sonatas (so named because the composer dedicated them to Maria Elisabeth, wife of the Elector of Palatine) is one of only two chamber works with piano and strings in which Mozart employed a minor key. Brahms’ Op. 78 (1879), a gift to his beloved Clara Schumann, makes use of material from earlier songs – “Regenlied” and “Nachlang” – and also suggests the tender yearning and beautiful melancholy so representative of Brahms at his best. The beloved Vitali Chaconne is played in a famous edition – by Ferdinand David – which utilizes Romantic-period dynamic and tempo shadings while richly exploring the color and tension inherent in the finest writing for violin. Ravel’s violin sonata of 1927 comes from late in the composer’s life and was premiered with the composer at the piano and George Enescu playing the violin. Finally, the dazzling Polonaise by Wieniawski (1852) is a celebration of dance, of the composer’s native Poland and of the bold technically brilliant music this violinist could write for his own instrument.

French violinist Amaury Coeytaux was graduated from the Bordeaux Conservatory at age thirteen with a unanimous first prize in both violin and chamber music. He made his first public appearances with an orchestra at age nine and at eleven played the Ysaye Sonata live on Radio France. Since then he has performed as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals and as a chamber musician in countries as diverse as Japan, Germany, the United States, Canada, Austria, Switzerland the Netherlands and, of course, France. Coeytaux has won ten prizes in national and international competitions and was awarded the prestigious Lavoisier and Adami scholarships for studies with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec at the Manhattan School of Music.

Korean-American pianist Heasook Rhee is celebrated for her collaborations with many diverse artists. Her musical partners have included tenor Nikolai Gedda, cellists Ralph Kirshbaum and Tilmann Wick, flutist Julius Baker and violinists Kyung wha Chung and Ivry Gitlis. She studied at the Juilliard School with Jacob Lateiner, Rosina Lhevinne, Samuel Sanders and Eugene Bossart. Ms. Rhee has toured extensively, performing in Carnegie Hall, Tonhalle in Zurich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Germany and in countries throughout Europe, Asia and North America and Africa. Since 1998 she has been a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music where she teaches accompanying and chamber music.

PIANIST EVGENY RIVKIN TO PERFORM AT WEILL RECITAL HALL
PRESENTED BY MIDAMERICA PRODUCTIONS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2006, 8:30 PM

Renowned artist and educator to play vital works from the solo keyboard repertoire

Bach: French Suite No. 4 in E-flat Major, BWV 815
Brahms: Seven Fantasies, Op.116
Debussy: Twelve Preludes (Book I)

MidAmerica Productions, Peter Tiboris Artistic Director, presents its fifth concert of the new 2006-2007 season at Weill Recital Hall on Sunday, October 29, 2006 at 8:30 PM.

Pianist Evgeny Rivkin will perform three major works for solo keyboard: Bach’s French Suite No. 4 from 1722, which mixes French and Italian elements in delightful, heartfelt courtly dance music; Brahms’ Fantasies – three capriccios and four intermezzi – from very late in the composer’s career (1892), some of the most poignantly beautiful of all piano works; and the first twelve of Debussy’s piano Preludes, completed in 1910, which beautifully reflect a poetic sensibility and a subtle yet deft use of keyboard nuances having Chopin as an original inspiration and source.

Evgeny Rifkin was born and educated in Russia, earning his master’s and doctoral degrees at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He received many competition prizes and has appeared as a soloist, concerto artist and chamber musician in Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico and Latin America. Mr. Rivkin has a vast repertoire including many of the most important concertos and pieces from the solo literature. Since 1995 he has been a professor of piano at the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music in Athens, Georgia.