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French music and poems: Violin and piano duo

Concert details

Program

A selection of fin-de-siècle and early 20th-century French music for violin and piano, with readings of poetry by the French Symbolists whose works had a resounding influence on the musical circles of their time.

Part I: Invocation
Paul Verlaine - Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit / Above the roof, the sky (1881)
English verse by Norman R. Shapiro

Triptyque, Op. 136 - Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Prémice
Vision congolaise
Joyeuseté

Part II: Contemplation
Charles Baudelaire - Paysage / Landscape (1861)
English verse by George Dillon

Pavane, Op. 50 - Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
arr. for violin/piano by H. Büsser

Romance, Op. 28

Part III: Beauty
Charles Baudelaire - La Beauté / Beauty (1857)
English translation by William Aggeler 

“Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” (My Heart Opens at Thy Voice) - Camille Saint-Saëns
from Samson et Dalila, Op. 47 
arr. for violin/piano by Felix Winternitz 

Part IV: Spirituality
Maurice Maeterlinck - Feuillage du cœur / The Heart’s Foliage (1889)
English verse by Bernard Miall

Thème et Variations - Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Part V: Iconoclast
Jean Cocteau - Hommage à Eric Satie / Hommage to Eric Satie (1917)
Translation by Christopher Goldsack

Choses vues à droit et à gauche (sans lunettes) - Erik Satie (1866-1925)
Chorale hypocrite
Fugue à tâtons
Fantaisie musculaire

Part VI: Joyousness
Paul Valéry, from Les cahiers / Notebooks D, VI, 292 (1916)

Sonata in G minor for Violin and Piano, L. 140 - Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Allegro vivo
Intermède: Fantasque et léger
Finale: Très animé

Performers

Hayne Kim, violin

Korean-American violinist Hayne Kim leads a distinctive musical career as a performer and educator that has brought her around the world. She made her solo Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 16, and has performed as a soloist with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and the Tuscia Operafestival orchestra in Viterbo, Italy. An active chamber musician, Hayne has collaborated with reputed artists such as Alexander Markov and Clive Greensmith, and performed for diverse occasions ranging from ensemble performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to intimate gatherings at the home of Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

Taking a special interest in contemporary music, Kim is the violinist and co-founder of Círculo Trio, an ensemble dedicated to exploring and presenting new and/or underperformed works alongside standard repertoire. Projects that the trio has commissioned include The Triumph of Time, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale for actor and trio with original music, and a collaboration with Bangkok City Ballet for Thea Musgrave’s theatrical chamber work, Pierrot.

Kim holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and MSU. Her past mentors include Lyman Bodman, Grigory Kalinovsky, and Dmitri Berlinsky. Dedicated to sharing her experiences with up-and-coming generations of musicians, she served as a faculty member of Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music in Bangkok, Thailand, from 2017-2022.

Zhao Wang, piano

Chinese-born pianist Zhao Wang is currently the Director of Accompanying at the Central Michigan University School of Music. Dr. Wang has performed in the cities of Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Thailand, Japan, the United States, and China. As an avid chamber musician, she frequently collaborates in concerts and recordings with renowned faculty members at prestigious universities and orchestras. She is a founding member of Círculo Trio, a clarinet-violin-piano trio which has been a featured guest ensemble at Thailand International Composition Festival, received the Verdehr Trio endowment at MSU, and presented multiple interdisciplinary musical works alongside traditional repertoire in concert tours in the recent years. In addition to appearances with Círculo trio, Dr. Wang has also performed regularly at Henri Selmer Summer Academy, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Music Festival at Walnut Hill, and Chengjiang Chamber Music Series in China. Wang received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastman School of Music, with a PhD from MSU, all in piano performance. She also received two additional master’s degrees in collaborative piano and piano pedagogy from MSU.