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For further information, contact the MBL Communications Office at (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at comm@mbl.edu
For Immediate Release: January 13, 2011
Contact: Gina Hebert, 508-289-7725; ghebert@mbl.edu
Pianist Robert Wyatt to Explore Intimacy in Schumann and Chopin Music at MBL Falmouth Forum, January 28
WOODS HOLE, MA—Steinway Artist and Highfield Hall Director of Music Robert Wyatt will present “Intimacy in the Piano Music of Schumann and Chopin,” at the next MBL Falmouth Forum on Friday, January 28, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in the MBL’s (Marine Biological Laboratory’s) Lillie Auditorium, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole. The lecture and recital is sponsored by the MBL Associates and is free and open to the public.
A buffet dinner is available before the event at 6:00 p.m. in the Swope Center located near the auditorium. Dinner tickets are $30 and must be purchased in advance at either Eight Cousins Children’s Books, 189 Main Street, Falmouth, or at the MBL’s Communications Office House, 127 Water Street, Woods Hole. Dinner seats are limited and tickets are available until they sell out or until 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 25. All tickets are nonrefundable. For more information contact the MBL Communications Office at 508-289-7423.
As romanticism evolved in Europe during the 1830s, two young composers distinguished themselves as masters of emotional manipulation. Born in the course of four months in 1810, Robert Schumann and Fryderyk Chopin thrived on the possibilities of a new musical sensibility, a wider audience base, and improved instruments, which increased the potential for sound generation. Within that new music, often contained in short and expressive forms, intimacy flowered.
Often inspired or facilitated by their mates, virtuoso pianist Clara Schumann (Schumann) and writer George Sand (Chopin), Schumann and Chopin crafted miniature portraits in the forms of mazurka, nocturne, waltz, prelude, etude, and, in Schumann’s case, extended suites. Through these lovely short stories, a heightened sense of connection—an intimacy—was born which altered the course of musical history.
Mr. Wyatt will explore intimacy in the piano music of both composers in his presentation which will include performances of Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 and Chopin: selections from Preludes, Etudes, Nocturnes, and Mazurkas.
Mr. Wyatt has concertized throughout the United States and internationally, gathering critical acclaim for sensitive and colorful solo and chamber music performances. Featured on NPR and PBS broadcasts, Mr. Wyatt has also performed at the Kennedy Center, the Phillips Collection, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and Boston’s Jordan Hall and Museum of Fine Arts.
Recognized for his scholarship as well as his artistic abilities, Mr. Wyatt has presented papers and recitals for national conventions of the College Music Society, the Society for American Music, and the Music Teachers National Association, where he is known as a specialist in 20th century American music. In 1987, he discovered several unpublished piano preludes by George Gershwin, and in the ensuing years has pursued research that has established him as one of the nation's foremost Gershwin scholars. Mr. Wyatt is the co-editor of The George Gershwin Reader, published by Oxford University Press in 2004.
Mr. Wyatt is a frequent lecture/recitalist for the Smithsonian Institution and performed as an exhibition artist for the Smithsonian’s Piano 300 celebration in 2000. As a “Smithsonian Scholar,” he presented musical programs in school systems under the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation. In 2006, he was selected by the United States State Department to present a series of lecture/recitals in Canada. Mr. Wyatt, a Steinway Artist, has served on the faculties of Boston University and The Florida State University, and is currently the Director of Music at Highfield Hall in Falmouth.
All MBL Falmouth Forum lectures, performances and presentations are sponsored by the MBL Associates for the Cape Cod community and feature topics in the arts, humanities and health. They are always free and open to the public.
The series will continue throughout the winter. The remaining lectures in the series are:
February 25
“Genocide and Problems of Identity” - Frances Deng, Special Advisor to the Secretary General for Prevention of Genocide, United Nations
March 11
“Pictures of the Brain Reveal the Structure of the Mind” - Nancy Kanwisher, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
April 14
NOTE: THURSDAY LECTURE - Herman T. Epstein Endowed Memorial Lecture - “An Evening with Marge Piercy” - Marge Piercy, bestselling poet and author
For more information and for full lecture descriptions, visit mbl.edu/falmouthforum.
The MBL is a leading international, independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to discovery and to improving the human condition through creative research and education in the biological, biomedical and environmental sciences. Founded in 1888 as the Marine Biological Laboratory, the MBL is the oldest private marine laboratory in the Americas. For more information, visit www.mbl.edu.
The MBL Associates are a group of individuals and businesses that support the scientific mission of the MBL through their gifts to the Annual Fund. The Associates sponsor educational and research programs for the MBL and raise funds for special projects. In addition, they operate the MBL Associates Gift Shop, located on Water Street in Woods Hole, the profits from which support scientific fellowships.
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