Cellist André Emelianoff, Robert Merfeld, and Makiko Narumi to perform at Bard
Cellist André Emelianoff, pianist Robert Merfeld, and mezzo-soprano Makiko Narumi will perform on Friday, March 22, at Bard College. The program, presented by The Bard Center, is free and open to the public and begins at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall.
Emelianoff is dedicating this concert to the memory of his friend, Margaret Creal Shafer, who died last summer. Shafer was artistic director of the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle for more than 20 years, a piano teacher in the area for 40 years, and the widow of Frederick Q. Shafer, former chaplain of Bard College.
The program will include several works by Johannes Brahms: Sonata in E-Minor, Op. 38; "O Tod, Wie Bitter Ist" ("Oh Death, How Bitter") from Four Serious Songs, Op. 121 (transcribed for cello and piano); Two Songs, Op. 91, "Gestillte Sehnsucht" ("Quieted Longing") and "Geistliches Wiegenlied" ("Sacred Cradle Song") for mezzo-soprano, cello (originally violin), and piano; and Sonata in F Major, Op. 99. Emelianoff and Merfeld will also perform Antonin Dvorak's Sonata, Op. 68 ("Silent Woods").
Upcoming concerts presented by The Bard Center include a performance by ArtSong Nouveau on Wednesday, April 10, at 7:00 p.m. in Bard Hall. This concert will cut across musical genres, with the ensemble performing works by Leonard Bernstein, Fats Waller, the Grateful Dead, and others. On Wednesday, April 17, at 8:00 p.m., Da Capo Chamber Players will "Celebrate Bard" in a program featuring works by Bard Music Program faculty members. And on Wednesday, April 24, new works by Richard Teitelbaum will be performed. Unless otherwise noted, all concerts will be held in Olin Hall.
About the Artists
Andrea Emelianoff is solo cellist of the New York Chamber Symphony and, since 1976, a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players. He has toured as soloist and chamber artist throughout Japan, Russia, Austria, and England as well as North America, and has given recitals throughout central Asia and the Mediterranean as an American Ambassador for the Arts, sponsored by the USIA. He has performed with Garrick Ohlsson, Jaime Laredo, Robert Mann, Stanley Drucker, Herman Prey, Dawn Upshaw, Richard Goode, and Benita Valente. Winner of a 1985 Solo Recitalist Award from the NEA, he has commissioned and premiered works by Aaron Kernis, Joan Tower, George Perle, Richard Wernick, Shulamit Ran, Stephen Jaffe, and Gerald Levinson. He has been a guest artist with the Houston Da Camera, New Jersey Chamber Society, and Lincoln Center Chamber Society; a participant in the Marlboro, Chamber Music West, and Piccolo Spoleto festivals; and a soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony, Albany Symphony, and Music Today Ensemble. He has recorded for CRI, Opus One, New World Records, Nonesuch, GM Recordings, RCA, Bridge Records, and Pro Arte. He made his chamber music debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1997. A professor of cello and chamber music at The Juilliard School, he also teaches cello at the Mozarteum Salzburg summer course, and is also on the artist-faculty of the Round Top (Texas) Festival, the Perlman Program (New York), and the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival (Maine). A graduate of The Juilliard School, Emelianoff's teachers have included Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, Luigi Silva, Leonard Shure, and Robert Mann.
Pianist Robert Merfeld was a founding member of the Apple Hill Chamber Players, with whom he toured nationally and internationally for more than 20 years. Merfeld participates in collaborative recitals throughout the United States with artists such as Dawn Upshaw, Lucy Shelton, Stanley Ritchie, Arnold Steinhardt, William Sharp, William Parker, Jayne West, and Jan DeGaetani, as well as St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble and the Philadelphia Quartet. He has performed at the Aspen, Ravinia, Caramoor, Marlboro, and New England Bach festivals. Concerto performances include appearances with the national orchestras of Costa Rica and Bolivia, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, and the Brandeis University Orchestra. Merfeld is currently on the faculties of Boston and Harvard universities and coordinates the chamber music programs at the Longy School of Music. He graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory as a student of Emil Danenberg and received a master's degree from the Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Beveridge Webster.
Mezzo-soprano Makiko Narumi, from Aomori, Japan, has performed with notable conductors throughout the United States, including Seiji Ozawa (Falstaff) and James Conlon (Mahler's Eighth Symphony). She also has worked with Julius Rudel and David Zinman. Narumi sang the role of Agatha Liu in the world premiere performance of Bernard Rands's Belladonna , which was commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Aspen Festival in 1999. At The Juilliard School, she sang the role of Lucretia in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Madame de Croissy in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, and was featured in other performances. Narumi was a soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in performances at Carnegie Hall and the Concertgebouw. A semifinalist of the 2000 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she also was a prizewinner of the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation International Voice Competition and winner of Juilliard's vocal concerto competition. Current European performances include singing Arnalta in L'incoronazione di Poppea with Stuttgart Opera in Germany. Narumi holds a bachelor of arts degree in music education from Iwate University in Japan, and a bachelor of arts in music and master of music degrees from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. She studied with the late Beverley Peck Johnson and now studies with Rita Shane and Robert White.

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