FREE Courtroom Concert: David Brubaker, violin & Miryana Moteva, pianist
Thursday, April 20, 12:00PM
Landmark Center, Cortile
Free
Hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, our popular Courtroom Concerts take place at noon most Thursdays in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. This series features accomplished musicians and composers from the Twin Cities and surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These one-hour concerts are free and open to the public.
About the Artists:
David Brubaker, who has been a member of the Pacific, Oregon and Houston Symphony Orchestras, joined the Minnesota Orchestra’s second violin section in 2003 and moved to the first violin section in summer 2008. He served as acting first associate concertmaster during the 2014 season.
Recent solo performances include the Four Seasons at the Lakes Area Music Festival, the Brahms Double Concerto, and the Khachaturian violin concerto with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Brubaker has appeared on numerous Minnesota Orchestra chamber music programs.
Brubaker is a native of Tucson, Arizona, where both his parents were music teachers and members of the Tucson Symphony. In addition to studying violin, he played oboe while growing up; he also sang as a member of the Tucson Boys Chorus, with which he toured the U.S. He earned degrees in violin performance from the Manhattan School of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
Miryana Moteva has recently appeared as a soloist with Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Sergei Prokofiev and in chamber recitals at Sundin Music Hall, the Basilica of Saint Mary, the Fitzgerald Theater, the Schubert Club, the Baroque Room, University of Wisconsin-River Falls and the Cowles Center for Performing Arts in collaboration with Curio Dance. She performs regularly on MacPhail Center for Music’s Spotlight Concert Series, the University of Minnesota’s Balkanicus New Music Series and the Schubert Club’s Courtroom Concerts. Her performances have been featured on Classical MPR.
Miryana has appeared at festivals such as March Music Days and Music and Earth International Festivals in Bulgaria, and San Daniele International Piano Meeting in Italy. Currently, she is on the faculty of MacPhail Center for Music as a piano teaching artist and a staff pianist. Previously, she has served as a Collaborative and Applied Piano Teaching Assistant at University of Minnesota, and as an Accompanying Fellow at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
Miryana holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Collaborative Piano at University of Minnesota. A native of Bulgaria, she is a graduate of the National School of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her principle teachers include Emma Tahmizian, Lydia Artymiw, and Timothy Lovelace.
Composer’s Note DEATH AND SPRING
This Sonata takes its name after the homonymous novel by Catalan writer Mercè Rodoreda, although it does not hold any other relation to it. I found the title befitting since the work behaves like a “Spring Sonata,” which nevertheless cannot forget about winter. The ruminating, obsessive character of the first movement (Mantra) leads, without pause, to the central Romance. In contrast with the preceding music, here violin and piano articulate a playful discourse rich in melody and rhythm, reaching stages of high dramatic intensity. The second movement is linked directly to the final one (Mantra), which presents a sunnier transmutation of the beginning of the work. However, while the first Mantra looks ahead (anticipating the Romance’s main lyrical theme,) the last one looks backward, thus ending in an energetic climax that references one of the most lively passages from the Romance. The musical material is treated cyclicly throughout the work, thus alluding to both death and spring as forces of renewal. – Marc Migó
