NSU to host piano-violin duet The Nicholls State University Division of Music will present a free recital featuring guest violinist James Alexander and faculty pianist Luciana Soares at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at St. John Episcopal Church in Thibodaux. The performance will feature works by Beethoven, Janacek, Pitombeira and Kaplan. The recital is free and open to the public. Violinist James Alexander is a member of the faculty at Louisiana State University teaching violin. He studied in New York with Ivan Galamian and later in London with Yfrah Neaman and Edith Vogel. Alexander was awarded the Concert Recital Diploma , the Premiere Prix, by the Guildhall School of Music in London. He served for three years as associate principal of the second violins in the Southwest German Philharmonic and held the same position for nine years in the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland. He has also worked with the OSESP Orchestra in São Paulo, Brazil. Alexander is an active chamber musician and soloist, having performed throughout central Europe, the United States and in Brazil. Most recently, he has given master classes in Romania and Bulgaria, and performed in the Offenburg Festival in Germany. Alexander is a member of the Burle Marx Trio along with oboist James Ryon and cellist Dennis Parker. The trio, in residence at LSU, is dedicated to performing and recording a wide variety of traditional and contemporary chamber music, especially music of the Americas. Pianist Luciana Soares is assistant professor of piano at Nicholls State University. Under the mentoring of pianist Belkiss Spenziéri C. de Mendonça, she received numerous awards in national competitions and appeared frequently as both soloist and collaborative pianist at concert halls throughout her native Brazil. She was later a student of Caio Pagano at Arizona State University and Mary Ann Stringer at the University of Southern Mississippi. In addition to teaching and performing a variety of repertoires, Soares is dedicated to promoting Brazilian music, having presented lectures and recitals at universities, concert series, and conferences throughout the United States and abroad. Her recording “Brasileira: Piano Music by Brazilian Women” is available from Centaur Records. The duo Alexander-Soares recently presented recitals at Baldwin-Wallace College and University of Akron in Ohio and will be performing and giving master classes at the Universidade Federal da Paraiba in João Pessoa, Brazil. While in Brazil, they will also collaborate with the Burle Marx Trio in the Espaço Contemporâneo concert series at the Sala Cecilia Meireles and at the Sitio Burle Marx in Rio de Janeiro.

Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 (Archive on Wednesday, October 19, 2005) Posted by susan  Contributed by susan

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