Gesa Kordes
violin
Andrew Willis
fortepiano
Faculty Recital
Friday, November 14, 2008
7:30 pm
Organ Hall, School of Music
Program
Sonata in B minor, H. 512 (1763) Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Allegro moderato (1714-1788)
Poco andante
Allegretto siciliano
Sonata in E flat major, K. 380 (1781) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Allegro (1756-1791)
Andante con moto
Rondeau
Intermission
Sonata in A major, Op. 12, No. 2 (1797-98) Ludwig van Beethoven
Allegro vivace (1770-1827)
Andante più tosto Allegretto
Allegro piacévole
Sonata in A minor, Op. 23 (1800-01) Beethoven
Presto
Andante scherzoso più Allegretto
Allegro molto
Gesa Kordes, Baroque violin, performs with numerous chamber ensembles and Baroque
orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Washington Bach Consort, Ensemble
Musical Offering, Opera Lafayette, Ensemble Tra i Tempi, and the Rheinisches Barockorchester
Bonn, as well as the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. She has toured as soloist and chamber
musician in the U.S., Central America, Europe, and Israel, and has recorded for NPR, Harmonia
Mundi, FONO, Dorian, and Naxos. Since 1998, Ms. Kordes has been increasingly in demand as
an ensemble director of chamber groups and Baroque and Classical orchestras in the U.S. and
Europe, most recently at the Magnolia Baroque Festival in Winston-Salem. In August 2006, she
joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as Lecturer in Early Music and
as the director of the School of Music’s newly-founded Baroque Ensemble. Ms. Kordes received
her Baroque violin training from Stanley Ritchie and John Holloway at Indiana University’s Early
Music Institute, where she served as Lecturer for Baroque violin. She holds a master’s degree in
violin and musicology from Indiana University, where she is currently a doctoral candidate in
musicology.
Pianist Andrew Willis performs in the United States and abroad on pianos of every period.
Noted for his mastery of early keyboard instruments, Willis recorded several Beethoven sonatas
in the first complete recording of the cycle on period instruments, a project directed by Malcolm
Bilson and presented in concert in New York, Utrecht, Florence, and Palermo, in which his
recording of Op. 106 was hailed by The New York Times as “a ‘Hammerklavier’ of rare stature.”
He has also recorded Schubert lieder and Rossini songs with soprano Julianne Baird, early-
Romantic song cycles with soprano Georgine Resick, and music of Rochberg, Schickele,
Luening, Kraft, and Ibert with flutist Sue Ann Kahn.
Willis has appeared as soloist with period-instrument chamber orchestras such as The Atlanta
Baroque Orchestra, the Apollo Ensemble, and the Philadelphia Classical Symphony. Recent
recital appearances include the National Music Museum, the Bloomington Early Music Festival,
and early-music societies in San Diego, Los Angeles, and London. At the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, where he has been a member of the keyboard faculty since 1994, he
serves as Director of the biennial Focus on Piano Literature, at which he premiered Martin Amlin’s
Sonata No. 7 in 2000; he recording this and other Amlin works is a new release on Albany
Records. He is currently investigating further aspects of historical performance, performing
Chopin on an 1848 Pleyel grand, and J. S. Bach and Italian masters on a replica of a 1735
Florentine piano.
Andrew Willis studied piano with Mieczyslaw Horszowski at The Curtis Institute of Music, with
George Sementovsky and Lambert Orkis at Temple University, and with Malcolm Bilson at
Cornell University. For a number of years, his multifaceted musical career was based in
Philadelphia, where he served as keyboardist of The Philadelphia Orchestra for several seasons.
Upcoming Events
15 Anthony Grier, percussion recital 3:30 Recital Hall
works by Abe, Ford, Myers, and Rosauro
HyoJin Kim, piano recital 5:30 Recital Hall
works by Bach, Beethoven, Prokofieff, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin
16 Old Time Ensemble, recital 3:30 Organ Hall
Priscilla James, percussion recital 5:30 Recital Hall
works by Sammut, Schmalenberger, Burritt, Daughtrey, and Grusin
17 Konstantza Chernov, graduate accompanying recital 7:30 Recital Hall
works by Debussy, Turina, and Fauré
18 Laura Andersen, viola recital 5:30 Organ Hall
works by Clarke, Bach, and Bowen
Hayden Dawes, voice recital 5:30 Recital Hall
works by Handel, Schumann, Debussy, Musto, and Hayes
Ben Crotts, trumpet recital 7:30 Recital Hall
works by Hansen, Balay, and Matthews
19 Violin Studio Recital 5:30 Organ Hall
UNCG Jazz Band • $ 7:30 Recital Hall
$10 general/$6 seniors/$4 students/$3 UNCG
20 Oboe Studio Recital 5:30 Organ Hall
Matthew Bengtson, guest artist piano recital • $ 7:30 Recital Hall
works by Scriabin, Szymanowski, Chopin, Nancarrow, Ligeti, and Medtner
$10 general/$6 seniors/$4 students/$3 UNCG
21 UNCG Opera Theater: Amahl and the Night Visitors 7:30 Aycock Auditorium
$15 general/$11 seniors/$6 students
22 UNCG Opera Theater: Amahl and the Night Visitors 7:30 Aycock Auditorium
$15 general/$11 seniors/$6 students
23 Honors High School Jazz Band and UNCG Jazz 1:30 Recital Hall
Ensemble • $
with special guest Joel Frahm
$10 general/$6 seniors/$4 students/$3 UNCG
UNCG Opera Theater: Amahl and the Night Visitors 2:00 Aycock Auditorium
$15 general/$11 seniors/$6 students
Gate City Camerata, performance 7:30 Recital Hall
