Weinsteins to Open DePauw School of Music's Faculty Select Series Friday
August 21, 2016
DePauw University faculty pianist Anthony Weinstein will be joined by a special guest -- his sister, the Ukrainian-born mezzo-soprano Yana Weinstein -- for the season opener for the DePauw School of Music’s Faculty Select Series. The program takes place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, August 26 at the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts in Thompson Recital Hall.
For this concert, the artists have chosen a program of personal favorites ranging from Robert Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -Leben, one of his most frequently performed song cycles, to Edvard Grieg’s hauntingly beautiful classic Haugtussa; from the lush textures and impeccable craftsmanship of Nikolai Medtner’s irresistible Russian songs to the musical genius of the French songs of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music professor Emile Naoumoff, the last disciple of the formidable Nadia Boulanger.
All four composers are Romantics: Schumann, of that overwhelming original generation; Grieg, of the later, more mature and full-bodied Romanticism; Medtner, the knight errant, with his fearless Quixotic challenge to the cynicism of the 20th century; Naoumoff, another Romantic spirit, stirred and stirring in similar ways, creating responses to the same questions, now in this 21st century.
“The music is so distinctive, colorful, and beautiful, and yet not particularly, if at all, known,” notes Professor Weinstein. “The Grieg is a piece that most people have ‘heard of,’ but most do not actually know; Medtner is only known to pianists (and only for a couple of pieces) and his over 100 fantastic songs are hardly performed; Naoumoff has not even published his songs -- he has over 300 and they are extraordinary. Clearly, the Schumann is a staple, but the others hold their own even in the presence of this well-established masterpiece.”
As for Professor Weinstein, in addition to his activities as a solo recitalist, he, too, holds his own as an avid collaborative pianist and chamber music partner -- in much demand as accompanist and vocal coach, with his special emphasis on Russian lyric diction. He also performs in piano duo with his wife Karina Avanesian as 
well as piano-cello duo with Israeli cellist Yotam Baruch.
The mezzo-soprano, who grew up with Tony surrounded by a family of musicians, began studying voice and piano at the age of five. Shortly following her graduation with her first degrees in voice and choral conducting, the family immigrated to the United States, where she has been living for over twenty years and has appeared in such roles as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Gherardino in Gianni Schicchi, Suora Zelatrice in Suor Angelica, and as Julia Childs in Lee Hoiby's Bon Appetit!
Tony Weinstein's principal teachers have included the eminent Luba Edlina-Dubinsky at Indiana University, Sedmara Rutstein and Haewon Song at Oberlin, and Derison Duarte at Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts. Yana is currently pursuing her doctorate at the Jacobs School of Music under the guidance of Brian Horne. She is a full-time voice instructor at Indiana State University, where she teaches studio and class voice, lyric diction, and conducts the women’s ensemble.
A current interest, shared by the brother and sister duo has been the development of this series of translations and IPA transcriptions of the songs of Nicolai Medtner, which audiences will hear in concert this Friday.
General admission to Faculty Select Series concerts is $10; tickets for seniors, children and all students are free. To obtain tickets online, visit the School’s website at music.depauw.edu. The Green Center box office will be open for purchasing tickets in person beginning one hour prior to every performance. Convenient all-access season passes are also available for a special price of $85 per person or $120 for two, through September 10.
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