FREE Courtroom Concert featuring Francesca Anderegg, violin & Matthew McCright, piano
Thursday, May 5, 12:00PM
Landmark Center, Cortile
Please Note: This concert will be held in the Landmark Center Cortile (1st floor).
About the Artists:
Hailed by the New York Times for her “rich tone” and “virtuosic panache,” violinist Francesca Anderegg delivers insightful accounts of contemporary and classical music. Through her inventive programming, active composer collaborations, and precise yet impassioned interpretations, Anderegg has earned renown as a musical explorer of the first order. “This was playing that had it all — taste, mastery, sensuality.” – Norman Lebrecht, The Arts Journal.
As a recitalist, Francesca Anderegg explores a personal interest in diverse musical traditions through the creation of concert programs with deep cultural and narrative threads. Upcoming concerts include performances of contemporary Latin American works drawing inspiration equally from folk heritage and the European avant-garde, traditional Russian repertoire, and a “Canciones Populares” program of works inspired by popular music ranging from jazz and blues to folk dances. Anderegg brings her exploration home with a program of recent compositions and commissions from a new generation of U.S. composers, including Clint Needham, Hannah Lash, and Andrew Norman. With her husband, the noted Venezuelan-American composer Reinaldo Moya, Anderegg has performed a series of his original works exploring magical realism and other fascinating elements of Latin American literature and imagination.
Anderegg’s performances of contemporary music have led to collaborations with some of today’s most prominent composers. At the Lucerne Festival, she has had leading roles in works by Tristan Murail, Bruno Mantovani, Ivan Fedele, and Kaija Saariaho, and performed Pierre Boulez’s Anthèmes II for Solo Violin and Electronics in collaboration with IRCAM. At New York’s (le) Poisson Rouge, she performed John Adams’s Shaker Loops and Road Movies. She also worked with New York Philharmonic composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg, performing his Clarinet Quintet throughout New York.
A recent highlight was a tour of Brazil, in which Anderegg performed as soloist with orchestras, taught master classes at Brazilian universities, performed in chamber music venues throughout the country, and taught at a social music project in the northeastern city of Recife at the invitation of the U.S. Consulate. Other highlights include recitals at the Arts Club of Washington, DC, all-Elliott Carter concerts at the Miller Theatre, performances with Itzhak Perlman and members of the Perlman Music Program, and more. Anderegg has performed the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the St. Olaf Orchestra, Daniel Schnyder’s Violin Concerto with Orchestra for the Next Century and, as winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, the Ligeti Violin Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra. Her second album of contemporary music “Wild Cities” was released on New Focus Recordings in 2016 and was featured in The Strad magazine.
Anderegg holds degrees from Harvard and Juilliard, where her teachers included Robert Mann, Ronald Copes, and Naoko Tanaka. In 2016, Ms. Anderegg was awarded a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, given to artists with a “distinctive musical voice.” She is a past recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing Arts. Committed to education and outreach as well as performing, Anderegg is a professor of violin at St. Olaf College, and has taught at Interlochen Center for the Arts.
American pianist Matthew McCright has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific and on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Ireland’s National Concert Hall. He has thrilled audiences and critics alike with imaginative programming that places the greatest piano repertoire alongside the music of today’s most innovative composers. A native of Pennsylvania, McCright now resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a member of the piano faculty of Carleton College. An accomplished recording artist, McCright has released seven solo recordings; his most recent Endurance on the Vox Novus label, as well as three albums on innova Records (Second Childhood, A Waltz through the Vapor, and Blender), the piano works of Gene Gutchë on Centaur Records, on Albany Records of the piano music of Olivier Messiaen, and What is Left Behind on the Proper Canary label. His solo touring shows include Evening Preludes, The People’s Music, Contemplations: The Music of Olivier Messiaen, Connecting Flights, There and Back Again, Forward Looking Back, and Endurance.
McCright’s festival participation includes Bang on a Can at MassMOCA, Printing House Festival of New Music (Dublin), Late Music Festival (UK), Vox Novus, SEAMUS, Hampden-Sydney Chamber Music Festival, Engelbach-Hart, Kodály Institute, Perilous Night, Fringe, Bridge, Spark Festival of Electronic Music, SPLICE, Festival of Lakes, Rayuela, Oh My Ears, Source Song, Seward Arts, Zeitgeist Early Music, Duquesne University’s Summer Music, Music 2000, CCM Village Opening, and Minnesota Composers Alliance, as well as programs for the American Composers Forum across the country. McCright completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota, Master of Music Degree in Piano from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance, Magna Cum Laude, from Westminster College. His past teachers include Lydia Artymiw, Lisa Moore, Nancy Zipay DeSalvo, and Richard Morris. He is represented by Proper Canary Artist Services. For more information please visit: www.matthewmccright.org
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
