The Department of Music presents the Hamilton College Orchestra on Friday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m., in Wellin Hall, Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts.
Conducted by Heather Buchman, the performance will include Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-Midi d’un Faun, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919 version), and Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, with guest artist Xak Bjerken, piano.
Xak Bjerken has appeared with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and membersof the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Disney Hall. He has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Konzerthaus in Berlin as well as at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall and the Kennedy Center. For many years, he has performed nationally as a member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet and was co-director with Steven Stucky of Ensemble X, a new music ensemble.
Bjerken has held chamber music residencies at the Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival and Olympic Music Festival, served on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival, and is currently on the faculty at Kneisel Hall and at the Chamber Music Conference at Bennington College. He released his first solo recording on CRI in 2001, and has since recorded for Koch International, Chandos, Albany Records, and the Artona labels, and has a recent disc of solo and chamber works by Stephen Hartke on Chandos. Bjerken is professor of music at Cornell University where, with his wife, Miri Yampolsky, he co-directs Mayfest, an international chamber music festival.
This concert is free and open to the public. For tickets or more information, call the box office at 859-4331.
