Released - March 15, 2010

EC Hosts "Girls’ Night Out: The Music of Clara Schumann and Cécile Chaminade"

Concert - March 24

Soprano Kerry Walters of Bradley University and pianist Denise Parr-Scanlin of West Texas A&M University will present Girls’ Night Out: The Music of Clara Schumann and Cécile Chaminade on Wednesday evening, March 24 at 7:30 p.m. at McCallister Hall in the Eureka College Chapel.  The program will focus on the solo piano works and songs of these two often overlooked composers.   Walters and Parr-Scanlin have taken on this project to bring to the fore the music of women composers.  This is the first in what the duo hopes will become a series of lecture-recitals focusing on their music. 

Both Clara Schumann and Cécile Chaminade enjoyed long and colorful careers primarily as concert pianists.  Between them they composed over 160 songs along with numerous solo piano works and chamber music.   Schumann, the wife of renowned composer Robert Schumann, was one of the first female concert pianists.  She concertized throughout Western Europe to provide for her seven children when her husband was hospitalized during the last years of his brief life.  Cécile Chaminade’s music was so popular in the United States at the turn of the century that amateur musical clubs bearing her name soon sprang up.  These so-called Chaminade Clubs are still in existence today. The popular appeal of her songs and piano works, especially among women, precipitated Chaminade’s rise to “super-star” status in this country.   Several of her piano pieces were published in the Ladies’ Home Journal along with the composer’s instructions on how they should be played.  

Both of these women made significant marks on the musical world. It is the hope of Walters and Parr-Scanlin that this performance will encourage a new audience to appreciate the contributions of these two accomplished women.

Denise Parr-Scanlin, piano, is Assistant Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Keyboard Division at West Texas A&M University where she teaches applied piano, piano literature, and directs the West Texas A&M University Piano Festival. During the summer months she teaches piano and chamber music at the Lutheran Summer Music Academy & Festival.  Dr. Parr-Scanlin has given numerous performances including recitals at the Fondation des États-Unis and the American Church in Paris and has made guest artist appearances with the Atlanta Wind Quintet, Collage Chamber Ensemble of Houston, and the Randel Chamber Orchestra. She can be heard on the Naxos label on a recording of the Sonata for Cello and Piano by Sam Jones, recorded with cellist Emmanuel Lopez.

In demand as both a performer and adjudicator, Parr-Scanlin was invited to serve as a judge for the piano competition portion of the 2009 Hong Kong Schools Music Festival in China. As the recipient of a grant through the United States Foundation she studied piano with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen in Paris, France; she was also a student of Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory of Music in Fontainebleau, France.  In 2005 she received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin where she studied with renowned pianist Anton Nel.

Kerry Walters, soprano, is Associate Professor of Music at Bradley University where she coordinates voice studies, directs the Bradley University Women’s Choir and Opera Workshop, and teaches courses in Diction, Vocal Pedagogy, Vocal Literature and Music Education.  During the summer months she is Coordinator of Voice Studies at Lutheran Summer Music Academy & Festival.  She is an active recitalist and oratorio singer in the region and has made guest artist appearances in New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, and Louisiana. Recent and upcoming performances include the soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Bradley Community Chorus (Nov. 2009), French Music By Candlelight for the Trinity Lutheran Church Concert Series (Feb. 2010), and J.S Bach’s St. Matthew Passion for the Peoria Bach Festival (June 2010). She is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and is past president of the Central Illinois chapter. Dr. Walters has spent summers singing with the late Robert Shaw in south central France, with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale in New Mexico, and sang for nine years as a member of the Nova Singers, a professional vocal ensemble based in Central Illinois. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

The concert is free and open to the public.  For more information call 309-677-2601.

Contact:

Brian Sajko

bsajko@eureka.edu