Annual Suzanna E. Waldbauer Memorial Concert to be Performed at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross music department will present the annual Suzanna E. Waldbauer Memorial Concert performed by the Holy Cross Chamber Players on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall. The concert, free and open to the public, will feature works by Georges Enescu (concert piece for viola and piano), Béla Bartók (Second Sonata for violin and piano), and Johannes Brahms (piano quartet in C-minor).

Performers are pianist Marc Ryser; violinist Carol Lieberman, associate professor of music; violist Marcus Thompson; and cellist Ronald Lowry. Lieberman and Shirish Korde, professor and chair of the music at Holy Cross, are co-directors.

The Holy Cross Chamber Players, founded in 1985 is a mixed ensemble consisting of members of the Holy Cross music department faculty and distinguished guest artists from the Boston area.

“Suzanna Waldbauer came to Holy Cross to teach music in 1970 and inspired scores of students over the next 20 years,” says Lieberman. “During this concert we play music that she would have loved.”

A native of Devavanya, Hungary, Waldbauer studied at the National Conservatory of Music and graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, both in Budapest. After graduation, she studied with Hungarian composers Zoltan Kodaly and Leo Weiner. In 1947, she left Hungary and moved to Mexico where she supported herself by playing and teaching piano.

After arriving in the U.S., she earned her M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. An accomplished performer of music for two pianos as well as the mixed chamber music repertoire, Waldbauer gave concerts all over New England, including appearances as a soloist with the Vermont Symphony. An influential teacher and music department chair at Holy Cross, she offered courses in music history, introductory structure of music and keyboard music.

All of the music performed during the program was written by three well-known composers. Enescu, a French violinist, conductor, and composer who was considered a child prodigy; Bartók, of Hungarian descent, is considered one of the best composers of the 20th century; and Brahms, an important German composer during the Romantic period.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:

Ryser performs all over North America and Europe including the first performances in Bulgaria of Béla Bartók's Concerto No. 3 (with the Vratsa Philharmonic) and concert tours in Switzerland that included performances of the Grieg and Ravel concertos with the Sinfonietta de Lausanne. Currently a member of the piano faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division, the Rivers School Conservatory, and an adjunct instructor of piano at Smith College, he has previously taught at Pomona College, Drake University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Lieberman has been one of the leading exponents of Baroque violin performance for three decades, and is equally well known for her performances of 19th- and 20th- century violin repertoire.  She has toured throughout North and South America and Europe, and the scope of her versatility can be seen by her performances of the complete Bach Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord in such cities as Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Boston and San Francisco, and her many premieres of 20th-century works. She is co-director of the Holy Cross Chamber Players, and violinist of the Early Music Ensemble of Boston and The Lieberman/Kroll Duo.

Thompson has appeared as viola soloist, recitalist and chamber music player in series throughout North and South America, Europe and the Far East. He was featured as soloist with the Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, and the Czech National Symphony. Thompson has received critical acclaim for performances of the John Harbison Viola Concerto with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta, and for performances of the Penderecki Viola Concerto in Boston and London. He is currently the Taylor Professor of Music, where he founded and leads programs in chamber music and performance study, at MIT. He also serves on the viola faculty at New England Conservatory of Music.

Lowry is an active performer in many of Boston’s leading musical organizations. He is the principal cellist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and the Boston Ballet Orchestra. Former principal cellist of the National Symphony of Costa Rica, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, Lowry performs frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and with the Boston Pops. He is currently the artistic director for the Needham Concert Society and is on the faculties of the New England Conservatory Extension Division, the Longy School of Music and the Rivers Music School.