March 21, 2009, Music of the New World
 On Saturday, March 21 at 7:30 pm cellist and Hawthorne Valley alumna Dr
Rebecca Hartka will collaborate with pianist Azusa Komiyama to present a
program of music from the Americas in advance of a peace keeping tour of
Southeast Asia in spring 2009.
The program will highlight the unique musical traditions of both South and
North America. Each country has a fascinating blend of cultural influences
that found their way into the music of composers such as Piazzola,
Ginastera and Foote. Hartka and Komiyama will briefly explore such threads
as the tango, african rhythms, and german romanticism in order to explain
the rich and eclectic range of cello and piano works by American
composers. In May, Hartka and Komiyama will share this same program with
audiences in Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand in a good will and friendship
tour. On the same trip, with the first USA orchestra to be performing in
North Vietnam since the war, and documented by PBS, Rebecca Hartka will be
making her International Solo debut.
The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Hawthorne Valley School, Ghent NY.
Admission is $20 for adults, $5 for students and $40 for a family of four.
Hawthorne valley School is located 2 miles off of the Taconic Parkway at
exit Rt 217 (Harlemville/Philmont) or six miles west of Rt 22 21c. For
more information call (518) 672-7092 ext 114.
About the Artists:
Rebecca Hartka
A nationally recognized cellist, Rebecca Hartka's playing has been
described as virtuosic and passionate. In May 2008 she appeared as soloist
with the Montana State University Symphony Orchestra, and on several
concert series. As well, she was a featured soloist for the Project
Guggenheim's "the Art of Compassion in a Time of War" and the 1999 Spiral
Dance Festival in San Francisco. Hartka has appeared as a solo recitalist
in the SAPAS Performing Arts series, the Exploring the Arts series, the
Newton Free Library series, and in tours of across the east coast and
Montana, in prestigious venues such as the Boston Athenaeum, the Boston
Center for the Arts, the Lenox Atheneum and the Brevard Music Center. She
is the Assistant Principal for the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra and Adjunct
Assistant Professor of Cello at Montana State University. A versatile
performer, Hartka has worked with numerous ensembles large and small
including Serenata Chamber Players, Boston College Contemporary Music
Ensemble, Hyperprism, the Fringe Festival, Cape Ann Symphony, Rhode Island
Philharmonic, Helena Symphony and in the Intermountain Opera Company. She
was also a founding member of the Phoenix Trio, which gave regular concert
tours throughout the country. Most recently Hartka has been featured as a
guest artist in a concert tour with the Meritage Quartet, and on Baroque
cello with Carrie Krause of Apollo's Fire.
Dr Hartka currently serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor or Cello at
Montana State University. As a Deans Scholar, Hartka completed a Doctorate
of Musical Arts in Cello performance at Boston University College of Fine
Arts (BU CFA) in May 2007. She completed a Masters in Music at BU CFA, and
a Bachelor of Arts in Cello Performance at the Oberlin Conservatory and
College. Hartka's teachers have included Leslie Parnas, Michael Reynolds,
Rhonda Rider, Clive Greensmith, Andor Toth, Peter Rejto, Douglas Moore and
Justin Kagan.
For a more extensive bio go to:
http://www.rebeccahartka.com.
Azusa Hokugo Komiyama
Ms. Azusa Hokugo Komiyama attended the prestigious, Toho Gakuen University
- School of Music, in Tokyo, Japan and holds a B.M degree with honors in
piano performance; where she studied with legendary pianists Kazuhiko
Nakajima and Yuko Todoroki. Soon after graduation, she received a
fellowship at the Music Alp Courchevel Festival in France where she
studied with a pre-eminent French pianist, Dominique Merlet.
As soloist, Ms. Komiyama has performed as soloist in Japan with the Osaka,
Nishinomiya, and Kobe Symphony Orchestras. In Thailand and Singapore, she
has appeared as guest soloist with the Mahidol Wind Symphony and the
Mus'Art Wind Orchestra respectively. Most recently, she has performed in
the United States with the Long Island University Wind Orchestra at Tilles
Performing Arts Center in New York, performing Gershwin and Stravinsky and
with the Montana State University Symphony Orchestra performing "Piano
Concerto No. 1" by a noted Thai composer, Dr. Dennis Euprasert.
In demand as chamber recitalist, she appears regularly in Japan, United
States and Southeast Asia. Currently, Ms. Komiyama is preparing to
premiere Eric Funk's Piano Concerto No. 2 for a performance in Montana and
a CD recording with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra in 2010. She
has also been invited to perform at the International Mendelssohn
Symposium, which will be held in March of 2009 in Bozeman, Montana.
Professor Komiyama was recently on the piano faculty at Mahidol University
Conservatory of Music in Thailand.
Program
Astor Piazzolla: Le Grande Tango
Eric Funk: Excerpts from Dance Suite
Alberto Ginastera: Pampeana No. 2
Arthur Foote: Sonata for cello and Piano
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