FREE Courtroom Concert featuring Mark Mazullo, Tadeusz Majewski, Heather McLaughlin, and Claudia Chen, piano

Please Note: This concert will be held in the Landmark Center Cortile (1st floor).

About the Artists

Mark Mazullo is Professor and Chair of the Music Department at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, where he has been teaching piano and courses on music history since 1999. He is the author of Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues: contexts, style, performance (Yale University Press, 2010), as well as many essays on diverse musical subjects that have appeared in such publications as The Yale Review, The Musical Quarterly, Popular Music, Journal of the American Musicological Society, and American Music. As a pianist who appears frequently in solo, chamber, and concerto settings, he has performed concertos by Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev with the Dubuque (Iowa) Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Philharmonic, the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis, and the St. Paul Civic Symphony. Other recent projects have included a complete performance of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano in collaboration with Macalester College’s dance program, and an all-Beethoven recital and master-class at the University of North Dakota School of Music. Mazullo received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and his Master of Music degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He received a Ph.D. in musicology at the University of Minnesota. The recipient of Macalester College’s 2009 Excellence in Teaching Award, Mazullo is known for his broad range of courses, including seminars on Beethoven and Shostakovich and a first-year course called Music and Freedom. He is also a popular pre-concert lecturer for both the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Tadeusz Majewski – Born in Krakow, Poland, I began my study of the piano with Janina Garscia-Gressel. I graduated from the Chopin Conservatoire under the excellent supervision of Maria Szmyd-Dormus. Turbulent events of the Polish Solidarity upheaval in 1981 influenced my decision to remain permanently in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Some advice from Andras Schiff, Murray Perahia and above all, the unforgettable inspiration of Maestro Horszowski were the guideposts along the path of my growth as a musician. Chopin has been the most important element of my life, from my early studies at the esteemed Chopin Lyceum in Krakow, to the formation of the Chopin Society in the Twin Cities.Chopin has been an essential companion in all my artistic endeavors.A residency in 1987 at the Banff Center gave me an opportunity to develop my chamber music repertoire. I worked closely with Richard Goode, whose friendship has been a great source of encouragement to me. In the following years, I found myself performing mostly solo and chamber music repertoire before audiences in the United States, Canada and Europe.I have been particularly attracted to combining works of a composer with the readings from his personal correspondence. This idea inspired the creation of two of my favorite programs, “Images of Chopin” and “Images of Schubert”. These performances evoke an atmosphere of storytelling, seance and theatre.Despite awards at the 1977 annual Chopin Society competition in Warsaw and the 1984 First New York Chopin Competition, it was not until 1997 that I had my New York debut. This was a result of having won the McKnight Career Grant.More than twenty years of teaching has provided me with balance and forced me to be articulate in clarifying ideas about interpretation. Recording of varied repertoire has given me a chance to listen critically to my own playing. But above all, making music in front of a live audience has given me a glimpse of those “moments of magic…moments when music becomes a communion between the hearts of composer, musician and listener.

Heather MacLaughlin completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Minnesota in piano accompanying/coaching, as a student of Margo Garrett. She received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University, where she studied with Enrica Cavallo-Gulli. A Suzuki piano instructor since 1985, Heather has taught at Suzuki institutes and workshops in Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, and Lima, Peru. She has taught at the MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis, and is currently a full time member of the music faculty at North Hennepin Community College.

Heather is one of the Twin Cities’ leading chamber music pianists, appearing regularly with members of both the Minnesota Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has collaborated with, among others, Pinchas Zukerman, Cynthia Phelps (principal violist for the New York Philharmonic), and baritone David Malis. She has been heard on both Minnesota and National Public Radio as soloist and chamber musician. In 1998, Heather and her husband, classical guitarist Alan Johnston, represented Minnesota on the Millennium concert series at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. As a member of the Shank-MacLaughlin Duo with violinist Leslie Shank, she was the recipient of a 1996 grant from the General Mills, Dayton Hudson and Jerome Foundations for travel to Hungary to study and perform the Bartók Sonatas for violin and piano. In 1997, the Shank-MacLaughlin Duo was a winner of the McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians. Their CD of the Bartók sonatas for violin and piano was released in 1999 on the Centaur label.

Claudia Chen enjoys an active career as performer, coach and teacher. Making her solo debut with the Denver Symphony Orchestra at age 14, Ms. Chen has gone on to perform as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Eastern Europe and Chile. Equally at home in contemporary works as in standard repertoire, Ms. Chen has given numerous premieres of solo and chamber works by several American and Canadian composers. She has been a guest on the Chamber Music Series of The Grand Teton Music Festival, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra’s series at MacPhail. She has also performed at Bowdoin Festival in the USA; Contrasts International Contemporary Music Festival in Ukraine; as well as Agassiz Chamber Music Festival and Centara International New Music Festival in Canada. Her performances have been aired nationally in Canada on CBC Radio; Polish Radio and Television; and in the USA on National Public Radio.

Ms. Chen often collaborates with her husband, cellist Arek Tesarczyk. Together the duo has given numerous recitals in the U.S., Canada, Chile and Poland. In April, their performance was awarded a 2008 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Artists. She has served on the faculty of the University of Manitoba in Canada, as Assistant Professor of Piano and Chamber Music. Currently, she teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul, as well as privately in her home. She has received degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, under Julian Martin and University of Minnesota, under Margo Garrett’s direction. Additionally she has worked with Leon Fleisher, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Lydia Artymiw and John Perry.

About the Host:

Composer Abbie Betinis writes music called “inventive, richly melodic” (The New York Times), “superb, whirling, soaring” (Tacoma News Tribune), and “the highlight” of the program (Boston Globe).  With over 50 commissioned works for ensembles such as Cantus, the New England Philharmonic, and The Rose Ensemble, Abbie is also a two-time McKnight Artist Fellow, and has won grants from the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, and Jerome Foundation, and at age 31, was listed in NPR Music’s Top 100 Composers Under 40.  Abbie has been a Composer-in-Residence with New York State School Music Association, The Rose Ensemble, The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists, and Schubert Club. In 2019, she will be the American Composers Forum’s ChoralQuest composer, visiting schools around the U.S. to write new choral music with middle school singers. 

Originally from Wisconsin, Abbie is a graduate of St. Olaf College (B.A.), the University of Minnesota (M.A.), and holds a diplôme from the European American Musical Alliance Institute in Paris, France. She lives in Minnesota, where she is Adjunct Professor of Composition at Concordia University-St Paul and executive director of Justice Choir.

View the Frequently Asked Questions about the Courtroom Concerts.

Seating is limited and first come first served. Please plan on arriving early. 

Schedule & Programs Subject to Change