It has been a while since The Old Schoolhouse Arts Centre has presented the always exciting two-piano format, and they are happy to remedy that with two highly-respected Vancouver area pianists.
Pianists Anna Levy and Rosemary O’Connor will be performing at TOSH (122 W. Fern Rd., Qualicum Beach) on Sunday, Jan. 15 from 2:30-4:30 p.m.
Admission is $18.
For more information, visit www.theoldschoolhouse.org or call 250-752-6133.
Anna Levy received her bachelors and master of music degree in piano from the State Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1980. She later became a member of the piano faculty at the State Music Preparatory School and the State Academy, a position she held for nearly 10 years.
In 1987, she won a scholarship to attend the State Conservatory in Moscow, where she worked in the piano class of Margarita Fyodorova (a student of the legendary Neuhaus) and the musicology department, completing her doctoral of musical arts degree in both piano and musicology in 1991.
Since emigrating to Canada, Levy has appeared both as a soloist and chamber musician championing contemporary music.
Levy has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts for a concert of Russian music in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Anna Levy, a pianist, will be performing at The Old Schoolhouse Arts Centre for Music On Sunday on Jan. 15. -- Photo submitted by Ron Hadley
More recently, she has appeared as soloist at Kwantlen College (now Kwantlen Polytechnic University), Simon Fraser University, Douglas College and Capilano College (now Capilano University), in performances of the music of Scriabin, Alfred Schnittke and Nikolai Korndorf.
As both performer and musicologist, Levy is a specialist in the music of Eastern Europe with scholarly contributions to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. With her husband, she has presented papers at a number of musicological meetings here and abroad. Among her publications is an interview with internationally renowned composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Rosemary O’Connor lives near Vancouver, where she performs regularly with various chamber ensembles including the Quiring Chamber Players and Davidsbündler Duo with her husband, violist Reg Quiring. Locally she has been invited to collaborate with Pro Nova Ensemble, Trio Accord and Standing Wave Ensemble. Rosemary co-produces and performs regularly at the Evergreen Cultural Centre’s Chamber Music Series as a member of the Quiring Chamber Players along with guest artists such as Ian Swensen, Anita Krause, Dale Barlthrop, Francois Houle, Andrew Dawes, Catherine French, members of the St. Lawrence Quartet, Vancouver Symphony and Borealis Quartet.
O’Connor’s CD recording of Austrian composer Richard Stoehr’s piano music was featured on CBC Radio’s Espace Musique with Alain Lefevre as well as CFRO’s “West Coast Classics”, and ORF Radio in Vienna. She has also produced a CD of viola and piano works as a member of Davidsbündler Duo. O’Connor has performed solo and chamber music concerts in the US, Canada, Germany, Lithuania, Brussels, Portugal and Italy. Her concerto appearances have elicited reviews such as
“Pianist defines Beethoven” in her performance of Beethoven’s 4th Concerto (Redlands Symphony) and “She brought audible reactions and a standing ovation with the energy of her performance” in Mozart’s Concerto K. 482 with original cadenzas (San Bernardino Symphony). Other concerts include Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Music at the Vineyards in Napa Valley, Pender Harbor Festival in B.C. and Chintimini Chamber Music Festival in Oregon. O’Connor held teaching assistantships at Eastman School and UCLA, and has taught on the faculties at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and Pasadena Conservatory of Music. She currently teaches at the Quiring Chamber Music School in Coquitlam and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music in Vancouver. She is also currently the director of the Quiring Chamber Music Camp in Vancouver.
The program for Music On Sunday, entitled “Symphonies For Two Pianos,” will feature works by Brahms and Rachmaninoff.
— Submitted by TOSH