PERFORMERS
- Josefina Urraca, piano
- Julia Yang, cello
- Sarah K. Williams, visual Artist
- visual artist
ABOUT THE CONCERT
Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979) is remembered above all as the twentieth century's most influential teacher of composition—mentor to Copland, Piazzolla, Glass, Quincy Jones and countless others—yet she was a gifted composer in her own right before largely setting the pursuit aside. Her Trois Pièces for cello and piano, composed in 1914 and published the following year, began life as organ pieces that she transcribed for the duo. The three brief movements move from a dreamy, gently rocking Modéré in E-flat minor, through a folk-like central piece, to a lively, nervously rhythmic finale. Concise and beautifully crafted, they distill an unmistakably French sensibility—harmonic subtlety, restraint and quiet expressive depth—into barely eight minutes of music.