Internationally Renowned Pianist and Music Professor to Perform at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Widely acclaimed pianist Sarah Grunstein will give a recital on March 28 at 8 p.m. in the Brooks Concert Hall at the College of the Holy Cross. Titled "Sarah Grunstein and Friends: The Intimate World of Robert Schumann," the program is in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Schumann’s death. The event is free and open to the public.

Presented by the Holy Cross Chamber Players, guest artists will include Sylvia Schmitz-Burgard, assistant professor of German, and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Ashe, lecturer in the department of music.

The program will include Schumann’s song cycle "Liederkreis" Op. 39 (Ashe and Grunstein), a poetry reading of Eichendorff’s poems (on which Schumann’s cycle is based) by Schmitz-Burgard, and solo works of Schumann (Grunstein) including "Carnaval."

The event will be an unusual one, as it will include not only the song cycle but a poetry reading. Such "soirees," combining genres for piano, voice, and poetry (ideal for the intimacy of the 19th century salon) were very much a part of Schumann’s world.

"As Schumann’s creativity was deeply inspired by literature, I am delighted that my colleagues, Professors Schmitz-Burgard and Ashe, will join with me in presenting a Schumann evening of music and poetry at Holy Cross," Grunstein said.

Grunstein is an assistant professor of music at Holy Cross. Praised by The New York Times as "a versatile, expressive pianist who combines a penetrating musical intelligence with the technical proficiency to realize her ideas," she performs internationally as a concert artist. She achieved particular acclaim for her performances in London, New York, and Sydney of Bach’s complete "Well-Tempered Clavier" during the celebration of the Bach Tercentenary, with her all-Bach recital at London’s Purcell Room leading to an invitation to perform at Kensington Palace before His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

Born in Sydney, her career has included concerts in the United States, Austria, Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, and her homeland. Grunstein received the doctor of musical arts degree from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and bachelor and master of music degrees from the Juilliard School where she held a teaching fellowship for four years following graduation. Grunstein has also taught at the Manhattan School of Music, the City University of New York, Fordham University, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the Victorian College of the Arts.

She is a former student of renowned teachers Sascha Gorodnitzki and Herbert Stessin at the Juilliard School, Nancy Salas at the Sydney Conservatorium, Lev Natochenny, now at the Frankfurt Hochschule für Musik, Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University, and Greville Rothon, assistant to Claudio Arrau.

Grunstein’s performances have been frequently broadcast by WQXR (New York) and by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her doctoral dissertation, which explores Chopin’s improvisatory style from the perspective of the Bach circle, was nominated for the Barry S. Brook Dissertation Award.

Grunstein is a winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Award for Young Australians.  Last year she performed a series of three recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and returned to her homeland to give concerts and master-classes in Perth, Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney.  In the words of one review, "From the first note, Sarah Grunstein commanded the theatre . . . Sarah Grunstein beguiled her audience into complete contemplative stillness . . . a towering and authoritative presence on stage . . . cool meticulous Bach followed by hot-blooded tempestuous Schumann . . . a stunning virtuoso."