Europe Meets America

Featuring Wanchi, violin, and Lori Piitz, piano

Sat, Jan 25 @ 8 pm

RECITAL HALL

Europe Meets America

Featuring Wanchi, violin, and Lori Piitz, piano

Sat, Jan 25 @ 8 pm

RECITAL HALL


JMU music faculty members Wanchi and Lori Piitz join forces in a concert that features music by Kreisler, Massenet, Beethoven, and American composer Robert Aldridge, born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1954.

Wanchi is an active solo and chamber musician, having performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center with Curtis on Tour, and at numerous festivals worldwide. Her playing of Eugène Ysaÿe’s sonatas and J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin under the Centaur Records label received high praise, citing “her incisive techniques and an exceptionally rich and beautiful tone” (Phil’s Classical Reviews, Audio Video Club of Atlanta). In May 2019, she released her fourth CD under the Centaur label, which features music by William Walton and Benjamin Britten in a collaboration with longtime friend and pianist Robert Koenig.

Lori Piitz is versatile artist whose career includes such diverse opportunities as playing chamber music at Lincoln Center in New York City and performing in a German opera house dressed as a baby chick! While living in Germany, she held the position of orchestra pianist with the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra and frequently performed recitals with members of that orchestra. She has played piano four-hand recitals in Canada, Europe, and the United States, including at the Kennedy Center. She is particularly interested in piano technique, and holds a certification in Injury-Preventive Piano Technique. She is currently a professor of piano at JMU where, in addition to working with talented piano students, she also teaches graduate courses in pedagogy and “Preparing for the Job Market.” Before coming to JMU, she taught at the University of Ottawa, Eastern Mennonite University, the Augsburg/Nürnberg Hochschule für Musik and at the Abraxas Musical Akademie in Munich.

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