Arts and Entertainment

Cellist Kim Cook to perform Sept. 17 at Palmer Museum of Art

Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State cello professor Kim Cook will be joined by guest soprano Luanne Crosby, a faculty member at Alfred University, in a recital of chamber music written for soprano, cello and piano at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, at the Palmer Museum of Art. They will be assisted by pianist Kayoko Miyazawa, a graduate of the collaborative piano program at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

The recital program includes the Pennsylvania premiere of a composition by American composer Gwyneth Walker. It also features works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Francis Poulenc, Amy Beach, André Previn, and Leonard Bernstein.

Admission is free. These weekly School of Music concerts at the Palmer Art Museum are held in the "BIG Deal" exhibition on the museum’s second floor. An elevator is available for patrons, located at the rear of the museum shop on the first floor. Seating is limited. Because of the gallery setting, there is no standing room. Parking at the museum is available at any of the nearby campus parking lots, which are open and free for visitor parking on weekends.

This concert will be livestreamed at http://www.facebook.com/PSUMusic/.

Program

Songs of the Night Wind - Gwyneth Walker

  • To be sung on the Water                                                                        
  • Where is the Nightingale?
  • Song for a Lyre

Three Songs - Francis Poulenc

  • Tu vois le feu du soir, FP 98, No. 1   
  • Violon (from Fiançailles pour rire), FP 101
  • Fleurs (from Fiançailles pour rire), FP 101

Chanson D’ Amour - Amy Beach

Vocalise - André Previn

Four Songs - Previn

  • Mercy
  • Stones
  • Shelter
  • The Lacemaker

Dream with Me (from "Peter Pan") - Leonard Bernstein

Hailed as "the superb American cellist" (Die Rheinpfalz, Frankfurt), Kim Cook has been acclaimed for her "truly glorious tone" (Musical Opinion, London), "ravishing colors and textures" (New York Concert Review, Carnegie Hall), and "keen awareness of line and style" (The Strad). Cook has performed as a soloist in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, China, Israel, Jordan, Latin America, and throughout the United States. She has toured extensively as an International Artistic Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, presenting concerts and master classes throughout the world. Television and radio broadcasts of Cook's performances have been heard in Brazil, China, and the United States. She has recorded concertos by Dvorak, Schumann, Lalo, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Strauss (Don Quixote), and Haydn, as well as the solo sonatas of Kodaly, Crumb, and Hindemith. In 2016, she recorded a CD of premieres of works for solo cello by Paul Reale for NAXOS.

A graduate of Yale University and the University of Illinois, Cook studied with Gabriel Magyar, Aldo Parisot, Alan Harris, and Janos Starker. Prior to Penn State, she was principal cellist of the Sao Paulo Symphony under the direction of Eleazar de Carvalho, and professor of cello at New Mexico State.

Cook was Penn State's inaugural laureate for the 2008-09 academic year, which allowed her to appear as a highly visible representative of Penn State, appearing regularly at events University-wide, and throughout the Commonwealth at community and state events. For more information, see Cook's website.

Crosby has sung professionally with the Cleveland Opera, Aspen Opera Theater, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and the Fredonia Chamber Players. Her performance of Poulenc’s "Gloria" with the Chautauqua Orchestra received the following praise from the Buffalo Evening News: “Miss Clarke (Crosby) sang with plaintive and appealing tone.” She performed as soprano soloist in the premier of Mendelssohn’s "Elijah" in Varna, Bulgaria, and returned there as soloist in Brahms’ "Requiem." Crosby has been a frequent guest recitalist at Chautauqua, performing in “Three Sopranos” and with tenor J.R. Fralick. She is a soloist on the CD titled "With Heart and Voice: Anthems Across America" with the Rochester, New York-based chamber choir Madrigalia.

Crosby has served on the faculty at Case Western Reserve University, Heidelberg College (Ohio), and for the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Division. She taught public school music in New York for 10 years at both the elementary and secondary levels and was a writer for NY State Curriculum in Music in High School General Music.

 

Kim Cook, Kayoko Miyazawa, and Luanne Crosby Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated September 11, 2017