Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Cornell music department announced a weekend of chamber music featuring esteemed faculty and guests.

On Friday, February 2 at 8:00pm in Barnes Hall, Professor Emeritus Malcolm Bilson performs an all-Schubert program with Ariana Kim, violin, and Shin Hwang, piano. Bilson has been in the forefront of the period-instrument movement since the early 1970s and has enjoyed an extensive career as a soloist, chamber performer, and teacher. The program includes Schubert's Sonata in A Major for violin and piano, the Impromptu in F Minor and Three Moments Musicaux for solo piano, and two selections for piano-four-hands.

Then on Saturday, February 3 at 8:00pm in Barnes Hall, soprano Tamara Acosta collaborates with Andrea Merrill, piano; Elizabeth Simkin, cello; and Elizabeth Shuhan, flute for an evening of vocal chamber music. Works of Jacques Ibert, André Previn, Claude Debussy, and Jake Heggie comprise the program. The vocal texts draw from poetry by award-winning writers Toni Morrison and Galway Kinnell, and Previn utilizes settings from poet Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945) and Middle Ages poet Frau Ava (1160-1127), demonstrating universal themes across the span of time.

The New York Times describes Acosta as "solid…her singing clarion-toned and ardent." Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at Ithaca College and a visiting lecturer at Cornell, she has appeared with numerous opera companies including Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Pacific, Opera Delaware, Chattanooga Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

All of the performers play important roles in the Ithaca musical community. Andrea Merrill is Executive Director and Founder of Opus Ithaca School of Music; Elizabeth Simkin is Associate Professor of Performance Studies at Ithaca College; and Elizabeth Shuhan is a visiting lecturer at Cornell University, a lecturer in music education at Ithaca College and instructor of flute at Opus Ithaca School of Music.

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