Monday, Feb 7, 2011
Thursday, February 17 in Princeton
by Anne Sears
The Westminster Conservatory at Nassau series will present the Barton Lehrer Duo performing music for piano four hands on Thursday, February 17 at 12:15 p.m in the Niles Chapel of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton. Admission is free.
Ena Barton Bronstein and Phyllis Alpert Lehrer will perform Sonata in C, K 521 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Divertissement à la Hongroise, D. 818 by Franz Peter Schubert.
The Barton Lehrer Duo has performed regularly throughout the United States since 1984. Their repertoire includes music for piano duet, two pianos, two pianos and chamber ensemble, and two pianos and orchestra. Appearances have included recitals and master classes at summer music festivals, national conferences, universities, and community music schools. They have recorded music by Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Laurie Altman, and Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee.
Born in Santiago, Chile, pianist Ena Bronstein Barton began her career in South America, touring her native continent. After winning a national piano competition she traveled to New York to study with Claudio Arrau and Rafael de Silva. Her New York debut at Town Hall was received with critical acclaim. Since then, Ms. Barton’s career has taken her across the United States, back to South America, to Europe, the Near and Far East, Australia and New Zealand. Among her engagements abroad was an extended tour of Israel and Europe, highlighted by performances as soloist with orchestras in Jerusalem, Luxembourg and Rome. She is also head of the piano department at the Westminster Conservatory and a member of the piano faculty of Westminster Choir College of Rider University.
Phyllis Alpert Lehrer is known internationally as a performer, teacher, clinician, author, and adjudicator. She has enjoyed an active career as a soloist, collaborative artist, and clinician in the United States, Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom, El Salvador, Taiwan, Japan, Sweden, Russia, and the Republic of Georgia. Ms. Lehrer is professor of piano and director of graduate piano pedagogy at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ. A founding member of the International Society for the Study of Tension in Performance, she contributes regularly to the Music Teachers National She has recorded for the Educo and Seda labels. In March of 2007 she was honored as a Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fellow, a program that “honors deserving individuals who have made significant contributions to the music world and the music teaching profession.” Ms. Lehrer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music and a Master of Science in piano from the Juilliard School of Music.
Westminster Conservatory at Nassau is a collaborative effort between Nassau Presbyterian Church and Westminster Conservatory, the community music school of Westminster Choir College of Rider University. Each of the eight recitals per season is 30 to 40 minutes in length and takes place on the third Thursday of the month, from September to May (except December). All performers in the series are faculty members of Westminster Conservatory.
On Thursday, March 17, Westminster Conservatory at Nassau will present a 100th Birthday Celebration of composer Alan Hovhaness featuring Marvin Rosen, piano.
This program is made possible in part by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.