Chamber Music by Curtis Student Composers

Air Date: July 24, 2016

Chamber music by Curtis student composers. Their program:

Andrew Hsu: Violin Sonata
Eunice Kim, violin; Andrew Hsu, piano
Andrew Hsu (Piano ’13; Composition ’15) has been known to say that Composer and Pianist are equal parts of his identity. Entering Curtis in 2008 from Fremont, California first majoring in piano and then composition. The Violin Sonata was written for his friend Eunice Kim in 2014. Andrew describes it as a reflection of their working relationship and how the two of them came together to make music. The movements are marked: Icicles: Frigid, not hurried; Nocturne: Gently flowing, dreamily; Perpetuum mobile: Frenetic.

T. J. Cole: Drifter
Gergana Haralampieva, violin; Eric Huckins, horn; Daniel Hsu, piano
T.J. Cole from Lawrenceville, GA is a composition student of David Ludwig and entered Curtis in 2012. This piece was inspired by a woodblock print called Drifter from visual artist Rockwell Kent. Cole found it challenging to blend the sound between three very different instruments: the violin, horn and piano.

David Hertzberg: notturno incantato
Andrew Hsu, piano
Enchanted night is the meaning of notturno incantato. This Hertzberg piece is very closely related to a mystical experience he had one summer night. He is praised “opulently gifted” (Opera News) and “utterly original” (The New York Times). The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) awarded David Hertzberg the 2015 Underwood Emerging Composer Commission.

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