From News to Announcements 5/26/19 Hello! Starting now, I am replacing the news section of my website with an announcements section! Talking about my upcoming events, projects, and career in general in my own voice is something I wanted to create a space for. I wanted to make this first post as a reflection on my past year career-wise. Just over a year ago, I moved back to New York after spending the previous five years in Utah. Since then, I have had a lot of exciting new experiences in my career! In the summer, I started teaching at the Cortlandt School of Performing Arts as a private piano teacher, and have continued teaching there since then with a regular student load throughout the year. I also played last summer for all the rehearsals and performances for the first ever program of the New York Opera Conservatory playing Die Zauberflöte and Così fan tutte, and I will be playing for them again this summer as they do Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Bohéme!
I also had the incredible experience this year of joining the artist roster of The Piatigorsky Foundation, an organization that seeks to bring classical music to underserved communities and small towns that might not have the opportunity to go to a large concert hall in a big city. My first concert with them was at a retirement home in New York City in October 2018, and in March 2019 I went on a solo performing tour for them to Ohio, all expenses paid! It has been an incredible experience being able to bring classical music to audiences who may not otherwise be able to hear it. I am so excited to keep working with this organization in the future! I made a video about my tour experience that you can watch here:
In the fall, I began studying for a master’s in piano performance at the Mannes School of Music under Simone Dinnerstein, which has afforded me more opportunities than I could have thought possible. I received specialized training on how to present classical music to schoolchildren in Dinnerstein’s seminar class. We traveled to PS 321 in Brooklyn, participating in both presentations and the Neighborhood Classics concert series in a benefit concert for the school.
In November, I had the opportunity to perform Philip Lasser’s 12 Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach for a concert in the Bach’s Footsteps concert series, curated by Dinnerstein. I even had the opportunity to meet the composer at this event! This upcoming fall, I will be playing in this concert series again, this time performing the second etude by Philip Glass in a performance of his complete etudes.
On a more personal note, I also began a project this year called Whimsical Birdsong to learn and perform the complete works of Maurice Ravel that include piano. So over the next five years, I will not only be learning all of his solo piano works, but also all of his chamber music and songs! Each concert of the series will feature works by Ravel alongside other composers and pieces that compliment his style. The first concert of the series, Beyond France, took place at Mannes in April and featured Ravel’s Chansons Madécasses, Philip Lasser’s 12 Variations, and Ravel’s Piano Trio in A Minor. I was so excited to work with so many other great musicians at Mannes that collaborated with me to make this concert happen. We even made a great recording of the trio that you can see on my listen page!
Looking forward, the next performance I have coming up is this Saturday, June 1st! I will be performing Beethoven’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Taconic Opera Chamber Orchestra at 3pm at the Mount Kisco Presbyterian Church. I have known the conductor, Jun Nakabayashi, almost my whole life, and I have performed with his orchestra before performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major back in 2016. I am thrilled for the opportunity to work with him again. Get your tickets now!
What a year! Aside from my previously mentioned concerts, I’m also looking ahead to my next Ravel concert and my master’s recital. Stay tuned!