Music from Middle-Earth
Sun Mar 24, 2024 – 3pm
Fort Dodge Middle School
Joshua Barlage, conducting
Marianne Parker, piano
MENDELSSOHN War March of the Priests from Athalie
BRAHMS Variations on the St. Anthony Chorale
Clara SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A Minor
Howard SHORE Music from The Lord of the Rings
From the forests of Germany and Middle-Earth we embark on a journey of musical discovery featuring Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, written when she was only 14 years old, alongside music by Felix Mendelssohn, who conducted the premiere performance of Clara’s concerto. Also included is Brahms’s musical twists and turns of a familiar chorale melody and concludes with all the woodland sounds of Tolkien’s mythical saga.
Pianist Marianne Parker’s playing has been described as “a cut above…her sympathetic fingers offering well-sculpted phrases and impassioned pealing” (Chicago Classical Review). Her debut album, Pages intimes, released in early 2019, features recently re-discovered works by Haitian composers. Marianne is currently curating an anthology of 21st century works for solo piano through NewMusicShelf.
An active chamber musician, Marianne co-founded the marimba and piano new music ensemble, L+M Duo, in 2016 along with marimbaist Laurel Black. The duo is committed to commissioning new work for their instrumentation by today’s composers. This season, the duo was featured in Chamber Music Magazine; performed at the Nief-Norf New Music Festival in Knoxville, TN; and produced a public concert in Chicago to celebrate the centennial of the iconic Wrigley Building. A fierce advocate of New Music, Parker is in demand as a collaborator for instrumentalists and vocalists alike. She serves as Vice President of the membership group New Music Chicago, and co-produces the monthly series New Music Chicago Presents… at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Marianne performs with many prominent chamber ensembles across the Midwest, including Milwaukee’s Present Music, and Chicago’s Access Contemporary Music, Fourth Coast Ensemble, Crossing Borders Music, and more. Marianne served as the principal pianist for the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and has performed under the batons of Riccardo Muti, Jaap Van Zweden, Michael Tilson Thomas, Ludovic Morlot, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and Michael Christy.
Marianne’s work is driven by her passion to communicate the vibrancy and variety of classical music, especially to those who have yet to discover it.
www.marianneparker.com
Single tickets can be purchased at the door on the day of the concert.
$15.00 Adults
Students free of charge