Artist Series:

Duo Recital with Oksana Ezhokina, piano Christina Dahl, piano

Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 8pm Lagerquist Concert Hall, Mary Baker Russell Music Center Pacific Lutheran University School of Arts and Communication / Department of Music present

Artist Series:

Duo Piano Recital with Oksana Ezhokina, piano Christina Dahl, piano

Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 8pm Lagerquist Concert Hall, Mary Baker Russell Music Center

Welcome to Lagerquist Concert Hall. Please disable the audible signal on all watches, pagers and cellular phones for the duration of the concert. Use of cameras, recording equipment and all digital devices is not permitted in the concert hall.

PROGRAM

Symphony in G Minor, K. 550 (arr. for Piano Four-Hands) ...... W.A. Mozart (1756-1791) Molto allegro Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Finale: Allegro assai

Hallelujah Junction for Two (1996) ...... J. Adams (b. 1947)

Intermission

Souvenirs, Op. 28 for Piano Four-Hands ...... S. Barber (1910-1981) Waltz Pas de deux Hesitation Tango Galop

Suite No. 1, Op. 5 for Two Pianos ...... S. Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Barcarolle A Night for Love Tears Russian Easter

About the performers

Christina Dahl has quietly established a reputation as one of the leading teachers of her generation, working for nearly twenty years in the Stony Brook University graduate music department, a program that has fostered eclectic pianists whose careers range from Bang On a Can and Yarn/Wire membership to prizewinning in the Cleveland Competition, the Gina Bachauer, the Orleans and other international solo competitions. She has directed jointly with the Emerson Quartet at Stony Brook for more than ten years. Since childhood her focus has been on chamber music, she can be heard on the Bridge, Albany and Tzadik labels. She is a founding member of Ensemble HD, whose artistic director Joshua Smith is principal of the Cleveland Orchestra and a frequent recital partner. The group released a double- vinyl album last year that sought to capture an essential part of their performance experience, playing live at the storied Happy Dog bar, a non-traditional classical music venue. She has twice been a cultural ambassador for the US State Department, and has toured and taught master classes in Africa, South America and the United States. She has played at the Gilmore International Piano Festival, Aspen, the Banff Centre, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, been a fellow twice at Tanglewood, has collaborated with her distinguished colleagues at Stony Brook in promoting new music, and has premiered pieces written specifically for her and Gilbert Kalish by composers on the faculty.

She is on the faculty at the Yellow Barn Music Festival and School, and for many years has traveled to Leavenworth, Washington to participate in two festivals at the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, making her connections and ties to the Pacific Northwest region particularly strong and meaningful. Dahl was both a faculty member and chair of the piano department at the Eastern Music Festival for eight years. She has been a visiting faculty member at the Cleveland Institute, Peabody Conservatory and Ithaca College. Before her tenure at Stony Brook she was on the piano faculty at Lawrence University for three years. She is acclaimed as a master class teacher; her classes most recently have included appearances at the New England Conservatory, Royal College of Music Stockholm and on the Steinhardt series at NYU.

Christina Dahl lives in Cleveland, where her husband is a member of the Cleveland Orchestra, and she travels weekly to New York for teaching. She has accumulated untold miles on Southwest airlines, but also enjoys driving her Mini Cooper and her Kawasaki 650R in the summers when it finally stops snowing. She has backpacked the entire John Muir Trail. Her principal teachers were Ann Schein at the Peabody Conservatory, Gilbert Kalish and Marjorie Duncan Baker, who’s 1927 Steinway she still plays.

Russian-born pianist Oksana Ezhokina appears frequently as guest recitalist and chamber musician on concert series across the United States and abroad. She has soloed with the Symphony, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic and Tacoma Symphony, and performed in venues such as the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia, Davies Orchestra Hall in San Francisco, and Klassik Keyifler Festival in Turkey. A dedicated performer of new music, she has premiered works by Marilyn Shrude, Wayne Horvitz, Bern Herbolsheimer, and Laura Kaminsky, among others. She has been featured on multiple live radio broadcasts on such stations as WFMT-Chicago, KUOW and KING FM in Seattle, and Maine Public Radio. Her collaborations include concerts with the Seattle Chamber Players, Avalon String Quartet, pianist Christina Dahl, violinists Ian Swensen, Paul Kantor and Andrew Jennings, and cellists Johannes Moser and Anthony Elliott, among others.

Ezhokina holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from Stony Brook University. She is the pianist of the Volta Piano Trio, whose recordings for Con Brio label received accolades in multiple international music magazines, such as The Strad, Gramophone and American Record Guide. A sought-after teacher, Ezhokina is Chair of the Piano Faculty and Assistant Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University. She has given piano and chamber music masterclasses in colleges and universities across the US and is in demand as an adjudicator. Additionally, she is Artistic Director of several flagship classical music programs at the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, including the International Chamber Music Festival/Institute and Winter Piano Festival.