Elise Blake, violin
Abigail Pack, horn
Sheng-Yuan Kuan, piano
Faculty and Guest Artist Recital
Thursday, March 27, 2014
5:30 pm
Recital Hall, Music Building
Program
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Nancy van de Vate
Andante expressive (b. 1930)
Allegro molto
Adagio expressive
Allegro
St. Andrew’s Bones: Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Sally Beamish
(b. 1956)
Intermission
Nocturne for Violin and Piano Jennifer Higdon
(b. 1962)
Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn, Op. 40 Johannes Brahms
Andante (1833-1897)
Scherzo
Adagio mesto
Finale, Allegro con moto
Performers
Elise Blake, violin, joined the string faculty of Mary Baldwin College in
Staunton, VA in 2009. Her performing has taken her to many exciting locations
including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York, the “Globe Theatre” of
Villa Borghese in Rome, the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington,
DC, and the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès at the Strasbourg International
Music Festival. Currently, Elise performs with a wide array of ensembles in
Virginia including the Roanoke Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Wintergreen
Performing Arts Festival Orchestra, Ash Lawn Opera Orchestra, and the Virginia
Symphony.
Also an avid chamber musician and recitalist, Elise recently collaborated with the
string faculty of the University of Virginia’s McIntire Department of Music in
Copeland’s Sextet (1937), and performed with acclaimed soprano Elizabeth
Futral on a concert series featuring Handel opera arias. She has appeared as
soloist with the Nashua Chamber Orchestra in Sarasate’s Navarra Op. 33 and is a
prize winner of the New England String Ensemble Concerto Competition. World
premieres and new music collaborations include those for Alea III (Boston, MA),
Illusory Correlations (Baltimore, MD), and the original ballet score for University
of New Hampshire’s “Murder at Smuttynose”.
Boston University’s School of Music awarded the Bachelor’s Degree in Violin
Performance to Elise in 2005; her Masters degree in performance is from Peabody
Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Instructors include Bayla Keyes,
Shirley Givens, Pamela Frank, Herbert Greenberg, and Elisabeth Adkins.
Abigail Pack, horn, joined the School of Music at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro as Associate Professor of horn in fall 2008. Regionally,
Abigail performs as a member of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Opera
Roanoke, Southwest Chamber Orchestra, the Wintergreen Summer Music
Festival, Minerva Chamber Ensemble (Centaur Records), and as a regular
substitute with the North Carolina Symphony. Recent performance highlights
include guest performing artist appearances at the International Horn
Symposium held at the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa,
International Flute Conference, Washington D.C., The International Midwest
Band and Orchestra Conference, Chicago, Illinois (2003 and 2009), The Kennedy
Center of the Performing Arts, Washington D.C. with the Montpelier Wind
Quintet and the International Women’s Brass Conference as a chamber recitalist
and as a member of the esteemed Monarch Brass Ensemble, a nationally
recognized all-women brass ensemble whose members are outstanding women
brass players from North America’s top symphony orchestras and universities.
She has degrees from East Carolina University, University of Iowa, and
University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a Bolz Teaching Fellow. She
has held teaching positions at James Madison University (2001-2008); Knox
College (1994-1996); Western State College (1996-1998); and in the Gunnison
Watershed School District (1997-1998). Pack has held playing positions with the
Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, Cedar
Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Iowa Brass Quintet, Green Bay Symphony
Orchestra, and with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
Pianist Sheng-Yuan Kuan has performed at the Kennedy Center, Weill Recital
Hall, Taiwan National Concert Hall, and Musikverein in Vienna. She is a
featured artist at the Heifetz International Music Institute, KUAF/Fulbright
Summer Chamber Music Festival, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber
Music by Candlelight series, and the Sylvia Adalman Chamber Concert Series at
Peabody Conservatory.
Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun praised Kuan as “(having) admirable technical
finesse and expressive flair at the piano.” Kuan has collaborated with famed
musicians such as Nobuko Imai, Stefan Jackiw, Espen Lilleslatten, Richard
Stolzman,KengYuen Tseng, Time for Three, and members of the Borromeo and
Parker Quartets and Apollo Trio. She also made appearances at music festivals
such as Bowdoin, Aria, Sarasota, Yellow Barn, Gijon Piano Festival and Norfolk
Summer Music Festival.
Kuan has received accolades from many competitions, including the 13th
Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna (Best Female Pianist Award, 2009), the
12th Taipei Chopin International Piano Competition (3rd Prize, 2008), Corpus
Christi International Competition in Texas (2nd Prize, 2008), and New York
Kosciuszko Chopin Piano Competition (3rd Prize, 2003). She was also the
recipient of Honolulu Morning Music Club Scholarship, Peabody Conservatory’s
Career Development Grant, Chamber Music Awards and Accompanying
Assistantship. Currently serving as the collaborative pianist at Lynn University,
Kuan holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Manhattan School of
Music. She is a candidate of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Peabody
Conservatory under the guidance of Professor Boris Slutsky. Her teachers have
included Peter Frankl, Scott McCarrey and the late Constance Keene.
