Dear Friends and Music Lovers,
Having played this concert twice in the past week, once at the Art Museum at Indiana University Bloomington, and once at Queens College, CUNY, I am excited that you too will be able to hear it. Titled “Then and Now, a concert of baroque music and contemporary music for baroque instruments”, it will take place tomorrow night, Friday October 18, at 8:00 PM at Kellogg Music Center at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. The musicians are Eva Legêne, recorder, Tatsuya Muraishi, violin, Masayuki Maki, harpsichord and myself on viola da gamba. Admission is free.
Whereas I didn’t know at first what to expect and how to describe the contemporary pieces on the program, I can now confidently report that they are extraordinary, fascinating, meaningful, beautiful, and played with tremendous care and virtuosity. Two are solos for tenor recorder: “Day dream” by Don Freund, and “Tirade” by Hiroshi Ninomiya. The third is a set of pieces by David Dzubay, for recorder/violin and harpsichord.
The freshness of contemporary sound, juxtaposed with the well loved beauty of the esthetic of former centuries (much as I.M.Pei’s pyramid next to the Louvre which graces the enclosed poster), puts our notion of the possibilities of human expression in perspective, and challenges our rootedness in the past, making us listen to it with new ears.
The baroque music on the program includes Heinrich Biber’s Sonata Representativa for violin, a delightful virtuosic composition filled with several birds, frogs, hens and roosters, cats, and musketiers. A trio sonata by G.P. Telemann vividly paints the different characters of ladies with names like Clelia, Corinna, and Dido. And in Nicolas Derosier’s Suite we follow the flight of James II from England in 1688, to take refuge at the court of Louis XIV, including his different feelings upon fleeing, his sea voyage and his arrival and reception at the French Court.
I hope you will be there!
Anne Legêne
Biographies of the performers
Eva Legêne is known throughout Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia for her remarkable performances. She is professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Early Music Institute in Bloomington IN, and is director of the annual Recorder Performer’s Seminar, and Summer Recorder Academy. Following her studies with Frans Brüggen, her teaching resume includes the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and master classes throughout Europe and the United States. Eva Legêne is a frequent guest at international festivals in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia, and the US. Besides performing Baroque repertoire as a soloist with Baroque or modern orchestras, she premiered Bernhard Heiden’s Concerto for Recorder with the Minneapolis Chamber Orchestra, and performed Steve Stucky’s Concerto for Recorder and Orchestra (‘Etudes’) with the New Music Ensemble at Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington. In January 2007, she premiered and recorded Recorder Concerto by Gerald Plain with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony Orchestra.Eva Legêne appeared in concert with many renowned early music artists such as Frans Brüggen, Hopkinson Smith, Bruce Dickey, Sigiswald, and Barthold Kuijken, John Gibbons, and regularly tours the US with gambist Wieland Kuijken. She has recorded for radio and television in Europe, the US, Australia, Canada, and Asia, and for the labels Telefunken, Denon, Focus, and Rondo Records. A recording with music by Telemann with Michael McCraw (bassoon) and Washington McClain (oboe) will be released by Focus Records.
Tatsuya Muraishi received his Master’s Degree of Music from Musashino Academy of Music and Berlin University of the Arts. He studied music, violin, and conduction with Louis Graeler, Josef Suk, Marianne Becher and Georg Mark. Mr. Muraishi is an acclaimed soloist and chamber music player. He was the solo violinist of Boris Blacher ensemble, the leading modern music chamber ensemble group in Berlin. Together with the group, his performance received positive review in various music magazines. Mr. Muraishi has offered many concerts in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Japan. His music was frequently recorded by SFB Radio (Germany). Mr. Muraishi also served as the principal concertmaster of Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen (Germany). He received an award at the Finale Ligure International Music Competition (Italy). As a soloist, Mr. Muraishi has played with several orchestras in Europe. He also conducted a festival orchestra in Austria as the guest conductor. Mr. Muraishi is now teaching young violinists, as well as leading and conducting orchestras in Japan. He also teaches masterclasses and performs as artist-in-residence at International Ötztal Festival, a summer music festival in Tyrol, Austria. He is also interested in Baroque instruments and repertoire. He has performed a number of concerts with his friend and harpsichordist, Masayuki Maki, and participated in a concert tour across Japan and China.
Masayuki Maki, specialist on early keyboards, is a founding member of the Suzaka Trio, and artistic director and co-founder of Hausmusik NYC. He has toured Japan and China with Eva Legêne, appearing in prestigious venues throughout these countries. He is adjunct faculty in early keyboards and chamber music at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, NY, and was director of music and organist at St.Paul’s Lutheran Church in East Northport. Currently studying harpsichord with Arthur Haas while pursuing a Doctorate degree in Early Music Performance – Histrorical Keyboards at Stoney Brook University, he received his Masters degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, NY, CUNY, where he studied organ with Jan-Piet Knijff. Mr. Maki also obtained performer’s diplomas at Indiana University Jacob School of Music, studying harpsichord with Elizabeth Wright, piano with Shigeo Neriki, and teaching as associate instructor in solo harpsichord repertoire and basso continuo. Mr. Maki regularly tunes and maintains organs and harpsichords at venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Anne Legêne performs a wide range of chamber music, on cello, baroque cello and viola da gamba, with many of the fine musicians and organizations in the north eastern USA, and often with her husband, pianist and harpsichordist Larry Wallach She received a Graduate Performer’s Degree at the Longy School of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, where she studied viola da gamba with Jane Hershey and baroque cello with Phoebe Carrai. She studied modern cello with Jean Decroos, principal cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands, her native country. She is a member of the Boston based viol consort “Long & Away”. She maintains an active teaching studio at her home, and in the Boston area, and conducts the chamber orchestra and teaches cello at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, in her hometown Great Barrington, MA. In the summer she teaches at the Early Music Week at World Fellowship Center near Conway, NH.
