Waldbauer Memorial Concert to Feature Holy Cross Chamber Players Performing Works of Bach, Mozart and Haydn

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross music department will present the annual Susanna E. Waldbauer Memorial Concert performed by the Holy Cross Chamber Players on March 16 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall. The concert, free and open to the public, will feature works by J.S. Bach, Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Robert Schumann.

Carol Lieberman, associate professor of music, will perform on Baroque and modern violin and Mark Kroll will perform on harpsichord, fortepiano and modern piano.

Professor Lieberman has been one of the leading exponents of Baroque violin performance for the past two decades, and is equally well known for her performances of 19th through 21st century literature. 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.

In addition to his concert performances, Mark Kroll is a noted authority on performance practice and period instruments. He is a proponent of the harpsichord music of the 20th and 21st centuries and has premiered, commissioned and recorded many new works. As a conductor, he has directed both orchestral and vocal ensembles, and served as the Artistic Director of Opera New England. In 1991 he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Padua, Italy and in 1993 he served as Professor at the Conservatory of Music in Würzburg, Germany. He has conducted master classes in the music academies of Warsaw, Krakow and Ljubljana and the Athens Conservatory in Greece. Kroll is Professor Emeritus at Boston University, where for 25 years he was professor and chair of the department of historical performance.

Susanna 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.