Oberlin College and Conservatory

Faculty Recital: Alexa Still, flute; Marilyn McDonald, violin; and Monique Duphil, piano

Saturday, February 15, 2014 at 4:30pm to 6:30pm

David H. Stull Recital Hall
77 West College Street, Oberlin, OH 44074

A recital by Oberlin Conservatory faculty members Alexa Still, flute; Marlilyn McDonald, violin; and Monique Duphil, piano.

Admission is free.

Program:

Francis Poulenc: Sonata for flute and piano

Allegro malinconico; Cantilena; Presto giocoso

Jaques Ibert: Deux Interludes pour flûte, violin et clavecin (ou harpe)

Andante espressivo; Allegro vivo

Gabriel Fauré: Sonata for violin and piano, Op. 13

Allegro molto; Andante; Allegro vivo; Allegro quasi presto

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Alexa Still is known internationally for her many recordings on the Koch International Classics label. She has been described as: “impeccable in technique and taste, seductive in phrasing” (Stephensen Classical CD Guide). “Still plays... so convincingly I cannot separate her from the music” (American Record Guide), “whatever she plays sounds musical in every turn of the phrase” (Gramophone), “a stunning showcase for the astonishing Alexa Still” (Fanfare).

A New Zealander, Alexa’s graduate study was in New York (SUNY Stony Brook) where she also won competitions including the New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition, and, East and West Artists Competition. Alexa then won principal flute of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the age of 23. While home, she received a Churchill Fellowship and a Fulbright award. In 1998, she left the NZSO to become Associate Professor of Flute at University of Colorado at Boulder. She then moved to Sydney in 2006, where she became Professor of Flute and Director of Performance research at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She began in her new position at Oberlin Conservatory, USA, in 2011.

Alexa maintains a busy concert schedule, having presented recitals, concertos and master classes in England, Germany, Slovenia, Turkey, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada, Korea, China, Australia, New Zealand, and of course across the United States. Her 13th solo compact disc (concertos including the Pied Piper Fantasy) was released in September 2004 to unanimous acclaim: “Anyone who doubts Still's dumbfounding technical ability or complete tonal control should hear these… You just won't hear better-sustained flute playing on disc than this” Fanfare Magazine. Alexa’s 14th CD was released in January 2008 (music for flute and piano with New York-based English pianist Stephen Gosling). “Both performers are constantly praised for their technical prowess and amazing ability to make the most challenging works sound effortless and easy. Reviewers far and wide agree that Alexa Still doesn’t make anything sound tough. She gracefully sprints and hurdles through menacing challenges with ease. Added to this technical superiority comes an equally superior sensitive musical side. This disc isn’t just flautistic fireworks” (Sequenza21).

Alexa has also served her profession as President of the National Flute Association (USA), and regularly contributes articles to flute journals across the globe. She plays a silver flute made for her by Brannen Brothers of Boston with gold or wooden headjoints by Sanford Drelinger of White Plains, New York. When her flute is in its case, Alexa is an avid motorcyclist, and she shares a daughter and two dogs with her husband. You can read much more about Alexa on her website: Alexa Still.com

 

Marilyn McDonald, a founding member of the Smithson Quartet and the Castle Trio, currently plays in the Axelrod Quartet in residence at the Smithsonian Institution and so named in honor of the donor of the decorated Stradivarius instruments on which the quartet performs.

She has toured worldwide as a chamber musician in repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary, appearing at Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, the Frick Gallery, the Caramoor, Utrecht and Mostly Mozart Festivals, Wigmore Hall, Disney Hall, Ravinia and the Concertgebouw, as well as appearing as soloist with the Milwaukee and Omaha symphonies. Concertmaster positions include Boston Baroque and the Peninsula Music Festival.

McDonald is well known for her interest in performing on historical instruments, and former students in this area occupy positions of importance worldwide.

Recent students occupy positions in the Boston and Houston symphonies, in several active string quartets, and have been international prize winners in the Locatelli, Berkeley Bach, Naumberg, Stulberg, and Fischoff competitions.

She has been artist in residence at Boston University and has held visiting professorships at the Eastman School of Music and at Indiana University. She teaches each summer at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and has been honored with the “Excellence in Teaching” award at Oberlin.

McDonald’s recordings are heard on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Virgin Classics, Decca, Gasparo, Smithsonian, and Telarc labels.

 

The French-born pianist Monique Duphil entered the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris at the age of 10 and studied under Jean Doyen, Marquerite Long, and Joseph Calvet. Having won a Premier Prix in piano at 15, she graduated the following year with a Grand Prix in Professional Chamber Music. Later studies were with Harriet Serr and Vladimir Horbowski. She obtained her Artist Diploma from the Musikhochschule of Stuttgart, Germany. She made a Paris debut with orchestra at 15, performing Felix Mendelssohn's G minor Piano Concerto with the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire. This was followed by prizes in four international competitions, including the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, which launched Monique Duphil on a worldwide career.

In recognition of her spectacular debut in the USA with the Philadelphia Orchestra, substituting on a few hours notice for cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, Monique Duphil was honored to be re-engaged by Eugene Ormandy to appear with him four times in 1980 performing two concertos on each occasion. Invited to Berne by Charles Dutoit, she recorded Alberto Ginastera’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in live performance for the Swiss Radio. Yoel Levi chose her to premiere Roger Sessions' Piano Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra.

Monique Duphil has performed in more than 50 countries throughout the five continents. While based in Hong Kong, she performed many solo and chamber music concerts in China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, but also in Western and Eastern Europe, both North and South America, as well as several tours of the former Soviet Union. She was praised by Hong Kong press as "possibly Asia's finest pianist."

Some of the numerous symphony orchestras Monique Duphil has performed with are the Philadelphia OrchestraCleveland OrchestraOrchestre Symphonique de Québec, Warsaw, Bern, Münchner Symphoniker, Paris Lamoureux, Caracas, Mexico, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Seoul, Tokyo Metropolitan, Sapporo, Kanazawa, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, and all ABC (Australia) orchestras, etc. Some of the conductors were Robert Aitken Akiyama, Charles Dutoit, Louis Frémaux, Fukumura, Sir Alexander Gibson, Erwin Hoffman, G. Hurst, Yoel Levi, Peter Maag, Igor MarkevitchEduardo MataEugene Ormandy, J. de Preist, Thomas Sanderling, Gerard Schwarz, Maxim Shostakovich, V. Smetacek, V. Verbitsky, Wislocki, and a host of others.

As a distinguished chamber musician, Monique Duphil has partnered with many renowned artists, including Michel Debost, Pierre Fournier, Karl Leister, Cho-Liang Lin, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Ruggiero Ricci, Henryk Szerying, the Musikverein Quartet, the Salzburg Mozarteum Trio, and the Vienna, St Petersburg, Haydn, Chester, and American string quartets. She is a member of the Amici and Villa-Lobos trios.

Monique Duphil was on the faculty of the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts before her appointment to the faculty at the renowned Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio, USA in 1992.

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