FRIDAY LUNCHTIME CONCERTS FRIDAY 9 APRIL 1.00 PM CHRISTINE STEVENSON, PIANO

LIVE ON FACEBOOK WWW.STEDSCATHEDRAL.ORG.UK PROGRAMME Sonata in C♯ minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, ‘Moonlight' Adagio sostenuto - Allegretto - Presto agitato (1770-1827)

Gondoliera from Venezia e Napoli (1811-1886)

Sonetto 104 del Petrarca from Années de Pèlerinage – II – Italie Franz Liszt

Pagodes from Estampes (1862-1918)

L’isle joyeuse Claude Debussy THE PERFORMER

Christine Stevenson enjoys a distinguished career as a piano recitalist and concerto soloist throughout the UK and abroad. Her concerts continually draw critical acclaim for her virtuosity, musicianship, and the engaging rapport she establishes with audiences of all ages. She is an Artistic Director/Tutor at the annual Summer School for at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, [visit www.pianosummerschool.co.uk for details] and is on the staff of the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music in London. She writes about piano music at www.notesfromapianist.wordpress.com.

Future engagements include recitals in Essex, Kent, Oxford, Cambridge, Suffolk, Hertfordshire and Buckingham. She will again be giving masterclasses at the Summer School for Pianists at Stowe.

Engagements in 2020 before lockdown included Ralph Vaughan Williams’ ‘On Wenlock Edge’ for tenor, string quartet and piano. During lockdown she recorded and live-streamed recitals of music by Poulenc, Debussy, Liszt and Chopin, and, to celebrate Beethoven's 250th Anniversary, she presented a video about Beethoven's harmonic language for the Virtual Summer School, for which she gave online masterclasses. As socially distanced live concerts gradually resumed, Christine gave a number of live recitals in London and Suffolk.

Previous concerts have included performances of music for Twenty Digits – piano duet and piano duo – with Gustav Holst’s own arrangement of ‘The Planets’ for two pianos, chamber music by Clara Schumann in a presentation with London Symphony Orchestra's animateur, Rachel Leach, recitals in the UK including at Highclere Castle (television's Downton Abbey), and a return visit to France for solo recitals in the Dordogne region.

Christine's recordings include music by the award-winning British composer, Thomas Hewitt Jones, and a recording of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage - II - Italie released on CD and iTunes in the year of Liszt's bicentenary, which received excellent reviews.

Born in Melbourne, Christine graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with distinction, being twice awarded the Gaitskell prize for the most outstanding student. She studied with pupils of Cortot, of Nadia Boulanger and of Michelangeli, and with the celebrated English , Ronald Smith, also participating in masterclasses given by Sergei Dorensky, Aldo Ciccolini and Vlado Perlemuter. Next Friday's recital is given by Robin Walker on the Cathedral organ