Northampton, MA - Smith College Department of Music presents four Sage Chamber Music Society concerts on February 6, February 20, March 26, and April 10, at 7:30 PM in Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall. All events are free and open to the public.
Featuring Smith College faculty musicians and guest artists, the Sage Chamber Music Society connects audiences with music from the Baroque period to today, inviting listeners to explore the sound worlds and cultures of the past and present.
On Friday, February 6, Acclaimed violinist Fabiola Kim, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, will join pianist Jiayan Sun, Associate Professor of Music and Associate Chair for Performance Activities at Smith College, to present three great duos by Franz Schubert: Sonata in A Major, Rondo in B Minor, and Fantasy in C Major. These works uniquely combine exquisite lyricism and demonic virtuosity.
On Friday, February 20, mezzo-soprano Katherine Saik DeLugan, Senior Lecturer in Music, and pianist Albert Cano Smit, Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano and Lecturer in Music, will present Olivier Messiaen’s rarely performed final song cycle, Harawi, a surrealist and multicultural reimagining of the legend of Tristan and Isolde. In Messiaen’s poetry, the lovers are represented by mythical figures from Indigenous Andean cultures, and their journey from life to death is told through abstract images of numbers, colors, Sanskrit incantations, and transcribed birdsongs.
On Thursday, March 26, Celebrating Pianos! PianoDuo Festival will feature the award-winning Long Duo and Smith faculty pianists Albert Cano Smit and Yang Liu. As a sought-after piano duo, the Long sisters—Beatrice Long and Christina Long—have performed extensively in North America and Asia. The two duos will present an extravaganza of music for piano four-hands and two pianos, including well-known works such as Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, and pieces by Mendelssohn, Debussy, Milhaud, and Dave Brubeck. At 6:30 PM, the artists will present a pre-concert talk on the fascinations and challenges of the art of piano duet. The Long Duo will also give a public masterclass on Friday, March 27, at 11 AM in Sweeney Concert Hall.
On Friday, April 10, violinist Robyn Quinnett, Lecturer in Music, and pianist Jiayan Sun, will present an exciting program with violin showpieces and violin-piano duets by Messiaen, Price, Sarasate, and Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. Joined by cellist Marie-Volcy Pelletier, Lecturer in Music, they will perform Smetana’s emotionally charged Piano Trio, composed after the death of his young daughter.
