Carter Chamber Music Series To Present A Tribute To Bill Kuyper Featuring Musicians of The New York Philharmonic, September 23

EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa.—For the second concert of its twentieth anniversary season, East Stroudsburg University’s Carter Chamber Music Series will present A Tribute to Bill Kuyper featuring Musicians of the New York Philharmonic Sunday, September 23.

Kuyper, the former Assistant Principal French hornist of the New York Philharmonic and a longtime Pocono resident, has appeared in 19 of the 20 seasons of the series and has been instrumental in arranging at least one performance per season of Musicians of the New York Philharmonic for the series

Kuyper will be joined by four colleagues from the Philharmonic, including the legendary former Principal clarinetist Stanley Drucker; Fiona Simon, violin; Peter Kenote, viola; and Qiang Tu, cello.  The concert also will feature Robert Miller, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Music at ESU and artistic director of the series, on piano.

Curtain time for the concert is 2 p.m. September 23 at the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall of East Stroudsburg University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg.  There will be a small reception for the performers after the concert.

General admission to the concert is $25, $10 for students 18 and under, and $8 for ESU students with current ID.  Reservations, which are held until five minutes before the concert, are available by calling 570-422-3483, x. 2.  Some tickets also will be available at the door.

L. William Kuyper, who served as Assistant Principal French horn with the New York Philharmonic, joined the orchestra in 1969 after memberships in both the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the United States Marine Band.  While in the Marine Band, he had the distinction of participating in the state funeral service of President John F. Kennedy.

Kuyper’s other activities have involved the writing and production of an educational video, Steps to Excellence, for Yamaha Corporation of America.  He has also arranged and edited various horn scores for Kendor Music, Inc. and the International Music Company.

Kuyper’s recording projects have included the Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings on the Vox label; on Elysium Recordings, Inc., in collaboration with other distinguished principals of the Philharmonic, he has recorded Schumann: The Complete Works for Winds and Piano (GRK 709), and Mozart: Elysium String Quartet and Friends (GRK 716), in which he performs the Horn Quintet.

Stanley Drucker joined the New York Philharmonic at age 19 in 1948, was named Principal Clarinet in the 1960–61 season by Leonard Bernstein, and made his solo debut with the Orchestra in 1961 in Debussy’s Clarinet Rhapsody conducted by Bernstein.

At the time of his retirement in June, 2009, Drucker performed as soloist with the Orchestra some 200 times (both at home and abroad), and played in more than 10,200 concerts with the New York Philharmonic, including on major historic international tours, from the Orchestra’s first visit to the U.S.S.R. in 1959 with Leonard Bernstein to the recent visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

He has served under nine New York Philharmonic conductors, from Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein to  Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, and, most recently, Lorin Maazel, and has performed under nearly 400 conductors in total.

In 1998, on his 50th anniversary with the Orchestra, he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America.  Drucker has premiered two concertos — by John Corigliano and William Bolcom — that were commissioned for him by the Philharmonic.  He earned two Grammy nominations in the category of Best Instrumental Soloist/Classical with Orchestra: in 1992 for his recording of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with the Philharmonic and Bernstein, and in 1982 for Corigliano’s Clarinet Concerto with the Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta.

He is featured on a number of other Philharmonic recordings: Debussy’s Premiere Rapsodie with Bernstein; Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto; and in the world-premiere live performance (1977) of the Corigliano Clarinet Concerto, which is a part of the Orchestra’s CD box set, The Historic Broadcasts: 1923-1987. 

Drucker’s other recordings include New York Legends: Recitals with Principals from the New York  Philharmonic; Schumann’s Complete Works for Winds and Piano; the Mozart Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A  Major, K.581; and a two-CD set of Brahms’s two clarinet sonatas, Trio in A minor, and Quintet in B minor entitled Drucker Plays Brahms.  He is also heard on the world-premiere broadcast of William Bolcom’s Clarinet Concerto, part of the New York Philharmonic Special Editions boxed set, An American Celebration.

Drucker began clarinet studies at the age of 10 with Leon Russianoff, his principal teacher, and later attended the High School of Music and Art and The Curtis Institute of Music.  He was appointed Principal Clarinet of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at age 16, of the Adolf Busch Chamber Players at 17, and of the Buffalo Philharmonic at 18, prior to joining the New York Philharmonic.

Fiona Simon, a member of the Philharmonic since 1985, made her Philharmonic solo debut in November 1989 performing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Three Violins.  She began her career in her native England where she studied with Szymon Goldberg and won major prizes in the Carl Flesch and Jacques Thibaud competitions.  For three consecutive years, she was London’s Young Artist of the Year. 

Simon has performed with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, and the English Chamber Orchestra among others.  She has also been featured in many recitals and concerts broadcast over the BBC, and has made numerous appearances throughout Europe.  She is a member of the Arioso Trio, the Vanderspar String Trio, and the Simon String Quartet.

Peter Kenote was born in Seattle, Washington. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, and his master’s and doctorate degrees in music performance from The Juilliard School.  Since 1983 he has been a member of the New York Philharmonic viola section.

In February, 2008 he performed Berio’s Sequenza VI for solo viola at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater as part of the New York Philharmonic’s Day of Berio.  In the 2009–10 season he played the premieres of a new viola concerto with the South Dakota Symphony written for him by composer Neal Harnly, and Moto Perpetuo, a new work for viola and percussion ensemble by Braxton Blake.

Since arriving in the United States in 1987, Chinese-born cellist Qiang Tu has established himself as a multifaceted artist much in demand. He won the San Angelo, Texas, Symphony Young Artist Competition in 1987, and the Grand Prize in the Downey Symphony Young Artist Competition of Los Angeles the following year.  In 1994, he served as Principal Cellist of the Princeton Chamber Symphony. Tu joined the New York Philharmonic in November 1995.

After making his solo debut at age 13 in Beijing,  Tu began a two-year engagement as soloist with one of China’s major symphony orchestras.  At age 17, he was awarded England’s Menuhin Prize as a member of the China Youth String Quartet, and was later selected by the Chinese government to study in the Sydney Conservatory. The culmination of his Australian tenure came when he won Sydney’s Parlings Award for Music.

Returning to Beijing, he was appointed, at age 20, Associate Professor of Cello at the Central Conservatory. Concurrently, he became Principal Cellist of the China Youth Symphony and concertized with the orchestra in Switzerland, West Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, and Great Britain.  His solo album, Meditation, was distributed by the China Record Company.

In the United States, Tu has appeared in Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and other major cities. Early on, he gave a solo recital to benefit the Princeton Chamber Symphony and also performed the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the Greater Princeton Symphony. Additional performances included the Elgar and Walton cello concertos with the Princeton Chamber Symphony. He also performed in recital with pianist Helen Huang to benefit the New Jersey Chinese community.

Tu has performed at chamber music festivals in Maine, played cello works and chamber music in Korea, and has appeared with Lukas Foss in chamber works at Weill Recital Hall and at the Stephanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts in Wisconsin.  Tu has performed on a live broadcast on WNYC, and appears frequently with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles chamber music series at Merkin Concert Hall.

Tu earned his Bachelor of Arts from China’s Central Conservatory.  In 1990, he received his master’s degree from Rutgers University, where he studied with Bernard Greenhouse.  Other past teachers include Zara Nelsova, Geoffrey Rutkowski, Lois Simpson, Paul Tortelier, and Zeguang Tu.

Robert Miller earned a bachelor of music degree from the University of Michigan and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.  A former faculty member of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, where he was Van Cliburn’s rehearsal pianist, Miller has made numerous solo, chamber, and  concerto appearances throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Miller has appeared numerous times as Guest Artist with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles in their subscription series at Merkin Hall.  As winner of the F. Lammot Belin Arts Scholarship, he performed a solo recital at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and at the Salle Cortot in Paris.  He recently appeared in a solo recital at the Sydney Opera House.

Miller has also collaborated in chamber music performances with musicians from numerous orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.  He has recorded for National Public Radio, Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Educo Records and Media Rite Productions. “I came to the U.S. in 2003 when I was 23. Being accepted into the Philharmonic was a life-changing moment for me.”

The Carter Chamber Series was established to bring professional chamber music to East Stroudsburg University and to the surrounding communities.  The series is named, in part, for Elliott Carter, a twentieth-century composer.  The series has been established through the generous support of individual donors and a small grant from the East Stroudsburg University Foundation.

For ticket reservations or more information, please call the Fine and Performing Arts Events Line at 570-422-3483, x. 2.

 

 

 

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