The Bruce Porter Memorial Music Series, in its 2016-2017 season, will present Farela: Folk Reimagined, with cellist Tanya Anisimova and pianist Pi-Hsun Shih, on Sunday, Nov. 6, at 4 p.m., at South Congregational Church, 242 Salmon Brook Street.
The concert will include a new work by Japanese composer Masatoshi Mitsumoto, based on Pierre et Luce, a 1920 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning French author Romain Rolland. In addition, the duo will present the Suite Popular Español by Brazilian composer Manuel de Falla, a cello transcription of César Franck’s gorgeous Violin Sonata, and Fa-Re-La, a piece written by the cellist herself.
The Bruce Porter Memorial Music Series, now in its fifth year, has received a grant from the Granby Education Foundation’s Community Grant Program for the 2016-2017 Season and is also supported by the Music Ministry at the church.
Ms. Anisimova is a graduate of Yale University, Boston University, Moscow Conservatory and Moscow Central Music School. She won first prize at the Concertino Prague International Competition, the All-U.S.S.R. String Quartet Competition, the Min-On International Competition in Tokyo and the First Shostakovich International Competition in St.Petersburg, Russia.
Pi-Hsun Shih enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, collaborative pianist and teacher. The Taiwanese-American musician has been a featured soloist with the São Paulo State Symphony, the Hartt Symphony, and the Mexico State Symphony where she served as the principal keyboardist. She has degrees from The Hartt School and Boston University, and balances her vibrant performing career with an equally active teaching schedule.
The Farela Story
Pi-Hsun Shih and Tanya Anisimova left their respective countries, Taiwan and Russia, to continue their musical education in the U.S. When Pi-Hsun Shih found Tanya Anisimova on the web and wrote to her, it had been years since they had played together as music students in Boston. They were soon to discover an unmistakable electricity in their music-making.
That same year, the musicians made their exceptionally successful Carnegie Hall debut. Since then, Farela has produced highly popular videos with virtuosic works for cello and piano on YouTube, as well as a CD album, and has built a considerable following on the East Coast of the U.S.
The next concert in the Bruce Porter Memorial Music Series, on Sunday, December 4, at 4 p.m., will be a departure for the series: a semi-staged performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s charming one-act opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors. This family-friendly production features a local singer as the young boy, Amahl, who encounters the Three Kings as they journey to Bethlehem to see the newborn Christ child. Admission to the concerts is free, with a suggested donation of $10 at the door to support the continuance of the series.
For more information please contact the South Church office at 860-653-7289 or visit the website at www.southchurchgranby.org/connect/music/bruce-porter-memorial-music-series
