First Parish Bedford UU

SCHUMANN BY CANDLELIGHT

A 3-part Concert Series celebrating the composer's bicentennial year

Subscription tickets for the series (3 concerts) are $35 for adults and $24 for students/seniors. Single-event tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students/seniors. Accompanied children under 12 are welcome without charge.

Advance tickets are available in the church office, or by calling the office at 781-275-7994. First Parish is located at 75 The Great Road (Rtes 4/62/225) in Bedford.

Part 1: An Evening of Masterpieces

Sunday, September 19, 2010 ~ 7 pm

Programme 

Ballade No. 3 in A-Flat Major, Op. 47 by Frederic Chopin

Malcolm Halliday, piano

Liederkreis, Op. 39 by Robert Schumann

Stanley Wilson. tenor; Malcolm Halliday, piano

Carnaval, Op. 9 by Robert Schumann

Yoko Hagino, piano

About the artists

Yoko Hagino, piano, was born and raised in Japan, where she began her piano studies at the age of four. As a child, she performed her own compositions, and performed in Europe, the U.S, and Japan as a soloist with the Czech Symphony, University of Southern California Symphony, Kyoto City Symphony, and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. Ms. Hagino has also appeared as soloist with the Osaka Century Orchestra, UMass Boston Chamber Orchestra, Key West Symphony Orchestra, and White Rabbit Symphonietta. She has appeared in solo concerts with repertory ranging from Bach to contemporary works.

Ms. Hagino has won the second prize in the Steinway Society Piano Competition, second prize in the First International Chamber Music Competition, second prize of the All-Japan Selective Competition of the International Mozart Competition and a prize in the Ninth Chamber Music Competition of Japan in 1999. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees with honors from Tokyo National University, where she won its concerto competition, and earned an Artist Diploma from the Longy School of Music, where she studied with Victor Rosenbaum, and also won the school's concerto competition.

Ms. Hagino completed a Performance Diploma at Boston Conservatory, where she was a student of Michael Lewin, and received the Churchill Scholarship. She has been invited to play at the Royal Academy Recital Series at Worcester Polytechnic Institute; the Bösendorfer Piano Recital Series in Tokyo, Japan; the Webster Concerto Series in Hanover, NH; the Harvard Musical Association; Steinert Hall in Boston; and at Steinway and Sons in Kamen, Germany. She also appeared live on Suisse Romande Radio in Switzerland in 2003. As a devoted chamber musician, she is the co-director of Die Musiker Witz, which has performed concerts throughout Japan. She is also a member of the contemporary music ensemble, White Rabbit, an ensemble in residence at Harvard University.

Malcolm Halliday, piano, is Minister of Music at the First Congregational Church in Shrewsbury, MA, where he leads one of the largest Protestant church music ministries (170 participants) in New England. Since the fall of 1998, he has been artistic director and conductor of the Master Singers of Worcester (MSW), MA,. a community chorus that performs a broad range of repertoire from music of the medieval and renaissance periods  through the Baroque (Handel's Israel in Egypt), and classical and romantic eras (Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle) to jazz (Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts) and the music of contemporary composers (Ruth Watson Henderson's Voices of Earth.) He also directs the Worcester Children's Chorus and the Worcester Youth Chorale at the Performing Arts School of Worcester. Mr. Halliday currently resides in Worcester, MA, where he is also on the music faculty at Clark University.

An active concert pianist, Halliday has performed in the United States and Europe, both as a soloist and in collaboration with singers, instrumentalists, and orchestra, performing frequently on historical pianos from museum and private collections and using period instruments in concerts at Jordan Hall and Faneuil Hall in Boston, Mechanics Hall in Worcester, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and other locations throughout New England. Resident pianist for the American Schubert Institute in Boston, Halliday performs with mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato and clarinetist Chester Brezniak as the Blackstone Trio. A champion of contemporary music, Halliday can also be heard on recordings of the music of the American composer Leo Sowerby, released through Albany Records. Halliday received degrees in piano from the Oberlin Conservatory and Boston University.

Stanley Wilson, tenor, has a background in both classical music and musical theatre. He holds a Master of Music in Opera Performance from The Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, and is currently studying with Deborah Birnbaum of New York City. Wilson was an Artist in Residence with the Natchez Opera Festival in May 2008, and participated with Maestro Steven Osgood in Intermezzo, a month-long opera festival, , where he sang the roles of Laurie in Little Women and Tanzmeister in Ariadne auf Naxos. He also participated in Solfest, a month-long festival for children and adults, sponsored by the Key West, FL, Symphony Orchestra, and was a finalist in the Boston Region of the National Association of Teachers (NATS) competition in 2002.

Wilson has appeared in recital with pianist Malcolm Halliday throughout New England, presenting programs ranging from the lieder of Robert Schumann to the songs of contemporary composers. His first CD, titled "Stanley Wilson Sings Cole Porter," with pianist/arranger Ben Cook of the Boston Pops, is now available.. His second and third CDs, with pianist Malcolm Halliday, featuring lieder by Robert Schumann and songs of British composers of the Romantic era are currently in production.