Chopin: Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61

Bartók:   Out of Doors Suite

              With Drums and Pipes

              Musiques Nocturnes

Ellington/Tatum: Caravan

Bolcom: Graceful Ghost Rag; Eubie’s Luckey Day

2:30 - 4:30 p.m. "Un-Master Class" Workshop

William Westney

Sponsored by the William E. Schmidt Foundation

A refreshing complement to the traditional master class, William Westney’s Un-Master Class® is an experimental performance workshop focusing on musical communication, authenticity and vitality.  Participating performers may be vocal, instrumental, solo or group. The lively format involves everyone, not just the designated performers. The class has been held worldwide, at such sites as the Aspen School, Peabody Conservatory, Kennedy Center, Royal Conservatory (Toronto), Cleveland Institute, Tanglewood Institute, European Piano Teachers Association and the Juilliard School. Westney's innovative workshop was the subject of a cover story in the Arts section of the New York Times.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Marc-André Hamelin is internationally renowned for his musical virtuosity and refined pianism. Perhaps best recognized for his attention to lesser-known composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, he is equally at home with the standard repertoire. His recital tour this season includes London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Munich, Moscow, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Montréal and Toronto; and his orchestra engagements include Dallas, Vancouver, Montréal, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and the Swedish Radio Orchestra. Highlights of recent seasons include appearances at the International Piano Series at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall; a six-recital series in Tokyo; multiple programs at London’s Wigmore Hall; tours with Les Violons du Roy and the Australian Chamber Orchestra; and performances with l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Tokyo Philharmonic, Lahti Symphony, BBC Symphony and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Recent concerto performances have included appearances with the orchestras of Basel, Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Montréal, Netherlands Radio, Philadelphia, BBC Symphony, Polish National Radio, Swedish Radio, Toronto, Vancouver and Ulster.  Hamelin’s extensive discography with Hyperion Records includes the complete sonatas of Medtner and Scriabin; concertos by Alkan, Bernstein, Bolcom, Henselt, Korngold and Joseph Marx; and solo discs of Alkan, Grainger, Liszt, Reger, Roslavets, Rzewski, Schumann and Villa Lobos. His double album of the complete Chopin-Godowsky Etudes won the 2000 Gramophone Instrumental Award. He was the only classical artist to play live at the 2001 Grammy Awards ceremony when both the Busoni and the Chopin-Godowsky recordings were nominated. Born in Montréal, Mr. Hamelin first studied at the École Vincent d’Indy and then at Temple University in Philadelphia. His principal teachers have been Yvonne Hubert, Harvey Wedeen and Russell Sherman, and he now makes his home in Philadelphia.

Pianist William Westney was the top piano prize-winner of the Geneva International Competition, and he appeared thereafter in European television broadcasts and as soloist with such major orchestras as l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Houston, San Antonio and New Haven Symphonies.  Westney holds a Masters and Doctorate in performance from Yale University, both with highest honors. He was awarded a Fulbright grant for study in Italy, and while there was the only American winner in auditions held by Radiotelevisione Italiana.  His solo recital appearances include New York's Lincoln Center, the National Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., St. John's Smith Square in London, National Public Radio ("Performance Today"), Taiwan, Korea, and a U.S. State Department tour of Italy. Critics have praised his recordings of solo and chamber works for CRI and Musical Heritage Society, and Newsweek magazine selected his CRI recording of Leo Ornstein's works as one of its "Ten Best American Music Recordings" of the year. Westney holds two endowed positions at Texas Tech University – and has been honored many times with teaching awards, including the Yale School of Music Alumni Association's prestigious "Certificate of Merit", for his distinctive and innovative contributions to the teaching of musical performance. He has also been a frequent guest professor at Tonghai University in Taiwan. Amadeus Press will release Westney’s first book, on the psychology of performance, in Fall 2003.

Anne Hastings Fiedler is presently associate professor of music and keyboard area head at the University of Evansville.  Known to audiences as an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, she has been featured on six occasions as soloist with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and has appeared in repeat solo performances with the Evansville Chamber Orchestra and the University of Evansville Orchestra.  She collaborates with a variety of soloists and ensembles in regional performances and performs regularly on the University of Evansville Faculty Recital Series.  Fiedler holds the bachelor of music with highest honors and a master of music degrees from the University of Illinois, where she was a Bronze Tablet Scholar.  A finalist and prizewinner in the National Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition, other distinctions include biographical listings in American Keyboard Artists, Outstanding Young Women of America and Who’s Who Among American Teachers.  While noted for her performances of standard keyboard repertoire, Fiedler has also specialized in modern solo literature, including major works by Boulez, Copland, Sessions, Kirschner, Johnson and Ives.  She currently is principal keyboard and also a violinist with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra.