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Event Description/ Synopsis
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In this lecture-recital, Singaporean pianist Raymond Chow will perform selected pieces from Debussy’s Préludes Book 1 for solo piano. Composed in a span of 3 months from Dec 1909 to Feb 1910, this collection of miniatures has remained a regularly performed work within the French solo piano repertoire. Like many other composers of his time, Debussy had drawn on a large number of extra-musical sources in composing this work. In this lecture-recital, Mr. Chow will explore the extra-musical contexts behind individual pieces, with a focus on the inspirations that Debussy drew from the visual arts, literary arts and non-Western culture.
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Biographies of performers
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Raymond Chow graduated with a Master of Music from University of North Texas (USA). He subsequently taught as Teaching Assistant at Stony Brook University (USA), and is currently Graduate Assistant at Longy School of Music of Bard College (USA). Teachers he had studied with include pianist Gustavo Romero and harpsichordist Lenora McCroskey. He has also attended the piano master-classes of Ian Pace and Robert Levin.
As a pianist, Mr. Chow has worked for the Singapore Dance Theatre, the Campus Theatre in Denton, Texas (USA), and the Department of Dance and Theatre at University of North Texas. As a guest pianist, Mr. Chow recently rehearsed a summer production with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Gilbert & Sullivan Players (USA).
Mr. Chow has participated in numerous music festivals and projects as both pianist and harpsichordist; these include the Boston Early Music Festival (USA), the L.T.L. Opera Studio (Italy) and the Impuls Festival for Contemporary Music (Austria). Venues at which he performed in recently include Esplanade, the Boston Athenauem (USA) and University of Music and Performing Arts (Austria). Having a special interest in contemporary music, Mr. Chow had been invited to perform at a composition workshop by Mario Davidovsky at University of North Texas, and have premiered music by Luiz F. Malucelli (Brazil), Mel Fitzhugh (USA) and Zachary Friedland (USA).
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