The Department of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College is pleased to open its 2012-13 performance season with a trio of performers from its sister institution, Minnesota State University in Mankato. The trio of violinist Lydia Miller, ‘cellist Joseph Rodgers and pianist David Viscoli will present this public concert in Jussi Björling Recital Hall on the Gustavus campus. This performance begins at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, September 24 and is free and open to the public.
The trio has programmed three works for this performance. The program will open with “Seguidillas gitanas” from Tres Piezas Orignales en Estilo Espanol by Enrique Fernandez Arbos, followed by the Trio Elegiaque No. 1 in G minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The performance concludes with the four movements of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 67.
A native of Maryland, Lydia Miller is a graduate of Boston University where she studied with Peter Zazofsky, first violinist of the Muir String Quartet. Ms. Miller moved to the Twin Cities in the fall of 2006 to work more closely with her mentor Jorja Fleezanis, former Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra and has played with such orchestras as the American Composers Orchestra, the Long Island Philharmonic, the Westchester Philharmonic, the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the World Symphony Orchestra. She was appointed Concertmaster of the Mankato Symphony in 2007. In 2010, she founded the highly successful chamber music series Music on the Hill, set in the pristine chapel at Good Counsel and featuring some of the best musicians in Minnesota. She is a faculty member at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Joseph W. Rodgers joined the faculty of Minnesota State University in the fall of 2007, after serving on the faculty of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, as well as Emporia State University. Rodgers holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Master of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana, and a certificate in Orchestral Conducting from International Workshops/Western Michigan University, and has recently completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Kansas.
Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, David Viscoli attended the Interlochen Arts Academy as a student of Charles Asche. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano at The University of Texas at Austin where he studied with Danielle Martin. He then attended The University of Southern California where he received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Piano Performance as a student of John Perry.
Monday’s season premiere performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in Jussi Björling Recital Hall. It is free and open to the public.