Stephanie Chase and Todd Crow to play for ‘Music in Central Valley'

| 28 Sep 2011 | 03:01

Central Valley — On Sunday, Nov. 20, at 3 p.m., Music in Central Valley will present a program with violinist Stephanie Chase and pianist Todd Crow at Central Valley United Methodist Church on Smith Clove Rd., off Route 32. The program will feature three sonatas for violin and piano - Sonata in A Major, K. 526, by Mozart, Sonata in G Major, Op. 78, by Brahms, and Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 18, by Strauss - along with some salon pieces by Rudolf Friml. The event is free of charge, with a suggested donation at the door. For further information, call 928-6570. Chase is a ‘first class artist’ Violinist Chase, a winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, has toured North, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. In 1986, she made a historic tour as soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic on its first trip ever to the People’s Republic of China. The following year, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Her teachers include Sally Thomas of the Juilliard School and the Belgium violinist Arthur Grumiaux. Chase is currently on the faculty of New York University’s School of Education. She has given master classes at conservatories and universities through the United States, and in Mexico City, and has lectured on period instrument practice at the Juilliard and Mannes Schools, and at the CUNY Graduate Division. A New York Times review referred to her performance as that of a “first-rate artist.” As a recitalist and chamber musician, Chase has performed at Lincoln Center, New York’s Tisch Center for the Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif., and at numerous universities and colleges in the states. International audiences have heard her in Belgium, Holland, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Asia, the Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil. In addition she has appeared at festivals such as Caramoor, Marlboro, Grant Park in Chicago, the Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest, and the Kuhmo Festival in Finland. Her repertory spans the Baroque era to the late 20th century, and she has performed on both modern and period instruments. She has recordings of Tzigane by Ravel, and the Violin Concerto and Two Romances by Beethoven on period instruments with the Hanover Band, and has recorded chamber works by Brahms, Schönberg, and Shostakovich. Crow has ‘endless flair, color, and stamina’ Pianist Crow, an honors graduate of the University of California and the Juilliard School, has performanced in North and South America and Europe. The New York Times has described his playing as “heroic… endless flair, color, and stamina.” The Times of London has called it “spine-chilling” and “exhilarating,” and The Wall Street Journal raved that his playing exhibited “stunning control and a wonderful sense of musical architecture.” In recent years Crow has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States, England, Italy, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere, and in recital or chamber music at the Berlioz/Dutilleux Festival in Manchester, England, Washington’s National Gallery of Art, London’s Wigmore Hall, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Crow made his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the American Symphony in 1992 and his London orchestral debut at the Barbican Centre with the London Philharmonic in 1986. In January, he will perform Brahms’ Concerto No. 1 in concerts with the Jerusalem Symphony in Israel. He can also be heard on BBC Radio in both live and recorded performances. Since 1996, Crow has been music director and pianist of the Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music in Northeast Harbor, Maine.