Holy Cross Chamber Players Dedicate Concert to Former Members

The Holy Cross music department will present the annual Suzanna E. Waldbauer Memorial Concert performed by the Holy Cross Chamber Players on April 12 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall. The concert, free and open to the public, will feature works by Olivier Messiaen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Robert Schumann.

Bruce Creditor will play clarinet; Mihae Lee piano; Carol Lieberman violin; Ronald Lowry cello; and Marcus Thompson viola. Carol Lieberman and Shirish Korde, Holy Cross professors of 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.

In addition to Waldbauer, this year’s concert is dedicated to David Finch, violoncello, another former member of the Holy Cross Chamber Players. He died of cancer last summer. He had played with the Chamber Players since its founding in 1985.

“The unique sound of his playing conveyed both his intimate knowledge of the music as well as the exquisite beauty of his soul,” writes Lieberman in the program.

“We are featuring music which [Finch and Waldbauer] would have loved, and we hope that this concert will be a fitting memorial to them.”

Suzanna Waldbauer came to Holy Cross to teach music in 1970 and inspired scores of students over the next 20 years. 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 United States, she earned a master’s degree in music 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.

For 35 years David Finch was a huge presence in the Boston classical music scene. Before he turned 30 years old he had become the principal cellist of the Boston Ballet, the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Boston Opera Company, the John Oliver Chorale, and the Newton Symphony Orchestra. He also often performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Finch was a founding member of the Beacon Chamber Soloists. He performed with Extension Works, the Ariel Chamber Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, Dinasaur Annex, the MIT Chamber Players, and the Harkness Festival Chamber Orchestra.

Finch received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and also did graduate work at Boston University. As a young man he attended the Tanglewood Music Center for two summers.