A Sumptuous Keyboard Feast

Friday, August 10, 2018 | 7:30 P.M.
Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Rochester (map)

Saturday, August 11, 2018 | 3:00 P.M.
Please note time
Sundin Hall, St. Paul (map)

Pre-concert talk begins 30 minutes prior to concert time.

Sungyun Cho, Donald Livingston, and Jacques Ogg, keyboards

We kick off the season with a grand display of three keyboard instruments, featuring soloists Sungyun Cho, Donald Livingston, and our own Jacques Ogg. The exciting array of keyboard concertos includes the seldom-performed Concerto for Three Keyboards by W.A. Mozart.

REPERTOIRE:

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Concerto for Two Harpsichords in F Major, Wq. 46
Concerto for Harpsichord & Fortepiano in E-flat Major, Wq. 47

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for Three Keyboards in F Major, KV. 242

PROGRAM NOTES (Download Notes)

Pre-Concert Talk

Join us 30 minutes before each concert for an interview-style pre-concert talk. Lyra bass player Sara Thompson will interview Lyra’s artistic director Jacques Ogg and guest horn player Mike Nelson.

Guest Soloists

Sungyun Cho began her musical studies in Seoul, South Korea, at the Seoul Arts High School and at the Yonsei University with Professor Kwak Tong-soon. From there she went to the Royal Conservatory of The Hague where she studied harpsichord performance and chamber music with such internationally renowned pedagogues as Jacques Ogg, Patrick Ayrton, and Ryo Terakado. Throughout her studies, she performed across Europe as a soloist and chamber musician, and she completed her program in The Hague with the highest marks and distinction. After graduation, Cho’s career grew rapidly, and she quickly drew the attention of many around the world.

Cho has given recitals in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Korea, Japan, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia and Chile. She is sought after as a performer for music festivals and prestigious concert halls such as Les Éphémères in France; La Caixa Foundation and Circulo Bach in Spain; Kirchheimer Konzertwinter in Germany; Kioi Hall and the Fukuoka Early Music Festival in Japan; the Handel Festival, Yonsei University Church Sunday Concert Series, Goeun Museum concert series, and Korea University in Korea; and the Early Music Chiquito Festival and La Paz Music College in Bolivia; the Maene Piano Museum concert series in Belgium; the Bach Festival in Poland; at Alberto Hurtado University in Chile; and on the De Glind early music concert series and Limburg Organ Festival in The Netherlands.

As an ensemble player, Cho is a member of Tokyo Baroque and Animaccordi, directed by Ryo Terakado, and she regularly plays with the Belgium ensemble Il Gardellino. As a teacher, she has been an assistant for the harpsichord studio at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and has been invited to present guest lectures and master classes in many music festivals. She is also music director of the DaeJeon Early Music Festival in Korea.

Her CD of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was released on the Belgian label Passacaille. Recordings of Scarlatti Sonatas and the Telemann Paris Quartet are currently in production.

Keyboardist Donald Livingston collaborates with musicians from across the musical spectrum. He has performed with such ensembles as Bach Sinfonia (Washington DC), Musica Antigua (Panama City), La Donna Musicale (Boston), the Lyra Baroque ORchestra, Glorious Revolution Baroque, Minnesota Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as with soloists and collaborators Cléa Galhano, Immanuel Davis, Jacques Ogg, Elisabeth Wright, Joel Frederiksen, Jed Wentz, Barthold Kuijken, and Dame Emma Kirkby. He has sung as a member of the Rose Ensemble, as well as with the Pro Arte Singers under the direction of Thomas Binkley and Paul Hillier at the Historical Performance Institute of the renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he studied organ and historical keyboard performance.

Donald is currently organist at St. Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Austin, where he is also Lecturer of Organ and Harpsichord at the University of Texas Butler School of Music and continuo harpsichordist with the Austin Baroque Orchestra.

One of the most prominent and influential modern masters of harpsichord and fortepiano, Jacques Ogg performs worldwide as a soloist and continuo player. He was a member of one of the world’s leading period-instrument ensembles, the Orchestra of the 18th Century, directed by the late Frans Brüggen. He works regularly with baroque orchestras around the world, most recently in Brazil, South Korea, and Spain, and also performs regularly as part of the Dutch Masters Trio with flautist Wilbert Hazelzet and cellist Jaap ter Linden.

Highly sought after as a pedagogue, Mr. Ogg is a harpsichord professor at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, one of the world’s foremost institutes for early music. He co-directs the Baroque Instrumental Program—an intensive summer music course in the Twin Cities—and has been the artistic director of the Lyra Baroque Orchestra since 2000. His discography includes more than sixty recordings with labels such as Philips, Sony, EMI, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, and Glossa. Fono Forum, Germany’s largest music magazine, named Mr. Ogg’s CD of Bach’s Goldberg Variations the finest recording of this work presently available.