BRIGHTMUSIC SEASON OPENER
"SOUVENIRS FOR AN ARCHDUKE"
SEPTEMBER 16-17

Guest pianist Gloria Chien. Image provided.

Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble will present the opening night concert of its 2013-14 Season on Monday and Tuesday evenings, September 16-17, with a glittering concert entitled “Souvenirs for an Archduke.”

The Monday evening, September 16 performance will be given at All Souls’ Episcopal Church at 63rd & Penn in northwest Oklahoma City.  The Tuesday evening, September 17 performance will be given at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral at 7th & Robinson in downtown OKC.  Both performances will begin at 7:30 pm.  A reception with the musicians will follow Tuesday evening’s performance.

This concert will feature the return visit of concert pianist Gloria Chien, who last dazzled our audience with her performances at “German Romanticism” in March 2011.  The Brightmusic musicians who will join Gloria for this concert will be Gregory Lee and Katrin Stamatis (violin), Royce McLarry (viola), Jonathan Ruck (cello) and Amy I-Lin Cheng (piano).

“Souvenirs for an Archduke” will feature three works.  Gloria Chien and Brightmusic Co-Artistic Director Amy Cheng will begin the program with three selections from “Souvenirs: Suite for Piano Four Hands” by the 20th Century American composer Samuel Barber.  Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous “Archduke Trio” – Piano Trio in B-flat Major, op. 97 – will follow, featuring violinist Gregory Lee, cellist Jonathan Ruck and guest artist Gloria Chien.

Picked by the Boston Globe as one of the Superior Pianists of the year, “… who appears to excel in everything,” pianist Gloria Chien made her orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. . An avid chamber musician, she has been the resident pianist with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston since 2000. She has recorded for Chandos Records, and recently released a CD with clarinetist Anthony McGill. In 2009 she launched String Theory, a chamber music series at the Hunter Museum of American Art in downtown Chattanooga, as its founder and artistic director and the following year was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at the Music@Menlo festival. A native of Taiwan, Ms. Chien is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, where she was a student of Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun. She is an Associate Professor at Lee University in Cleveland, TN, and is a member of Chamber Music Society Two. She is a Steinway Artist.

After intermission, the musicians will perform the Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, op. 15 by Austrian-American composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold.  Violinists Gregory Lee and Katrin Stamatis, violist Royce McLarry, cellist Jonathan Ruck and guest pianist Gloria Chien will perform this superb work.

Adult admission is $15 per person.  Students with ID are free of charge.  Season members should show their Season Membership cards for admission.

Season memberships are available for a contribution of $75/person by mail (send a check and mailing information to Brightmusic at P.O. Box 20254, OKC 73156) and online (click HERE or try the Brightmusic.org website and follow the instructions).  Contributions larger than the minimum amount will certainly be welcomed, and will be put to excellent use this season.

Season memberships will also be available at the door to both performances of Concert 1.

From staff reports