The USM School of Music is pleased to present duo pianists Yuri Funahashi and Steven Pane in a concert on Friday, December 11 at 8 p.m. in Corthell Concert Hall on the USM Gorham campus. Tickets to the concert are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, USM employees and alumni, and $5 for students, and can be purchased online at www.usm.maine.edu/music/boxoffice, by phone at 207-780-5555, or at the door as available.

This concert is made possible by a grant from the Warren Memorial Foundation.

Yuri Funahashi and Steven Pane bring a fresh take to the duo piano repertoire with their original transcription of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet Suite” and original arrangement of the Poulenc “Concerto for Two Pianos.” They will also perform the world premiere of a new work for two pianos and interactive electronics by Colby College faculty composer Jonathan Hallstrom, “R-Motion: Drosera.”   In this innovative work, the pianists interact with the computer through various gestural controllers to affect not only audio responses but also three-dimensional surface mapped video.

The team will also present a master class from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Friday. “I am delighted to have Yuri and Steven return to USM for this concert and master class,” says Laura Kargul, Director of Keyboard Studies at the USM School of Music . “Not only are they superb performers and musicians, but they are also highly successful veteran teachers with so much to offer our students.”

Four pianists from Kargul’s studio will perform in the master class: Tina Davis, Angela Olszta, Amanda Raymond and Jonathan Prak. In addition to solo piano repertoire, the master class program will feature Brahms’ masterpiece for two pianos, “Variations on a Theme by Haydn,” perhaps the best known work for that ensemble.  

“The whole event is made even more exciting by a new addition to Corthell Hall, a rare Steinway Model C piano,” adds Kargul. “It now sits alongside our Steinway D, making Corthell one of very few venues in the region where two extremely fine Steinway grands occupy one stage. This makes it an absolutely ideal space for two-piano concerts.”

Bios of the artists:

An active chamber musician, Yuri Funahashi has been a guest artist at numerous music festivals and has performed in Australia, Canada, Japan, throughout Europe and in many of the major halls in the U.S., including the Kennedy Center, the Music Center in Los Angeles, Orchestra Hall in Chicago and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. She has collaborated with the Verdehr Trio, the Brentano String Quartet, the Cassatt String Quartet, Daedalus Quartet, and is a performing member of the Festival Chamber Music Society New York City. Funahashi received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School and has recorded for Musical Heritage Society and John Marks Records. She is on the faculty of Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Steven Pane has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor at universities and in major halls throughout the country, including the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Aaron Davis Hall in New York City, Davies Hall in San Francisco and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  Most recently he performed and curated the Opus 111 Project where philosophers, artists, composers, and others created inter-media variations on Beethoven’s last piano sonata, a project he presented at the International Arts in Society conference in Rome. Pane is currently Professor of Music at the University of Maine at Farmington where he teaches courses in music history, writing, sound studies, and travel courses to Italy.

Jonathan Hallstrom teaches music theory and composition, and directs the multimedia studio at Colby College. He has been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Rockefeller, Exxon, and Sloan Foundations for his work in computer-generated sound and interactive multimedia and has been a featured composer at many national and international conferences and festivals. Hallstrom served s Consulting Director for the Juilliard Music Technology Center between 1990 and 1995, and has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Keele's Center for Music Technology in England and a visiting composer at The University of Lancaster (England), Marshall University, and Colgate University. As a conductor, Mr. Hallstrom has appeared with the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, the Keele (England) Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre du Deuxieme (Paris), The Bangor Symphony Orchestra, The Midcoast Symphony Orchestra and The University of Iowa and University of Wisconsin New Music Ensembles. 

For more information about studying piano at USM, contact Laura Kargul at kargul@maine.edu.

8 p.m. Concert Tickets: $15 adults, $10 seniors, USM employees and alumni, $5 students.Click here to purchase tickets online or call the Music Box Office at 207-780-5555.

Those needing special accommodations to participate fully in this program, contact Lori Arsenault, 207-780-5142, loria@usm.maine.edu. Hearing impaired: call USM's telex / TDD number 207-780-5646.