The Holy Cross Chamber Players will perform in the newly renovated Brooks Concert Hall at the College of the Holy Cross at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3 as part of the music department’s fall music schedule. The program will feature harpist Ann Hobson Pilot, the first African American woman principal player in a major symphony orchestra, who recently retired as Principal Harpist of the Boston Symphony after 40 years. Additional performers will be Carol Lieberman, violin and viola, associate professor of music and director of the Holy Cross Chamber players, Linda Bento-Rei, flutist, and harpsichordist Mark Kroll.
Pilot has had an extensive solo career internationally, and recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Boston Musicians Association. Her new video documentary “A Harpist’s Legacy – Ann Hobson Pilot and the Sound of Change” profiles her inspirational life and musical career as a gifted African American women triumphing over barriers of race and color, and will air on PBS nationwide in 2014.
“Performing with such an extraordinary harpist as Ann Hobson Pilot is incredibly exciting,” says Lieberman. “We have always enjoyed playing chamber music together and we look forward to many more concerts in the future.”
Lieberman has garnered critical acclaim for her violin and viola repertoire in the 19th to 21st centuries, and is recognized as one of the nation’s leading exponents of Baroque violin performances. Bento-Rei frequently performs in chamber music programs and orchestral programs, including recent performances with the Worcester Symphony Orchestra, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic; she co-founded the Flutists’ Guild, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the New England flute community, in 2004. Kroll, through a career spanning four decades, has been named as one of the world’s leading harpsichordists and fortepianists and has appeared with some of the world’s major orchestras, including the Philadelphia Symphony and the Boston Symphony.
The program will highlight the talents of the four players with selections from the works of Kalabis, "Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord"; Saint-Saëns, "Fantasie for Harp and Violin"; Piazolla, "Tangos for Flute and Harp"; and Debussy, "Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp". The performance is free, open to the public, and handicap accessible.
The Holy Cross fall music schedule also includes the following performances:
- Tuesday, Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m. Nicholas Kitchen, violin MatheMusica – Open Equations Brooks Concert Hall
- Thursday, Oct. 24, 8 p.m. Mike Monaghan & Friends Brooks Concert Hall
- Friday, Oct. 25, 8 p.m. Holy Cross College Choir & Chamber Singers Family Weekend St. Joseph Memorial Chapel
For more information about any of the performances in the Chamber Players Series, please call the music department at (508) 793-2296, or visit the department’s website.
Contributions to this piece by Sara Bovat '14.
