The Golandsky Institute

Sylvie Courvoisier, piano
Switzerland

Pianist and composer Sylvie Courvoisier's performance will include improvisations and original compositions from her new solo piano album "Signs and Epigrams."
 
Vicky Chow, piano
Canada

Program
     
Olivier Messiaen    

Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant
Jesus: XI. Premiere communion de la Vierge: Tres lent
Ryan Francis       

Etude No. 1   "Digital Sustain"
Etude No. 2   "Harlequin"
Etude No. 3   "La Fee Verte"
Etude No. 4   "Doppelganger"
Etude No. 5   "Jacob's Ladder"
Etude No. 6   "Loop"
Neil Rolnick   Digits for piano and computer

Biography

Sylvie Courvoisier

Composer/pianist, Sylvie Courvoisier was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland. She started to play piano at age of six initiated by her father, an amateur jazz pianist.
She moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1998, where she currently resides.

She has played and recorded with John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Tim Berne, Joey Baron,Mark Feldman, Tony Oxley, Yusef Lateef Dave Douglas, Joëlle Léandre, Herb Robertson, Butch Morris, Tom Rainey, Mark Dresser, Ellery Eskelin, Lotte Anker, Fred Frith, Michel Godard, Mark Nauseef among others.

She has been commissioned to write music for concerts, radio, dance and theater. Her works include:” Concerto for electric guitar and chamber orchestra" ; "Balbutiements" for vocal quartet and soprano ;"Ocre de Barbarie", a musical performance for metronomes, automatons, barrel organ, piano, tuba, saxophone, violin and percussion.
Commissions include the Vidy Theater of Lausanne, Pro Helvetia and Germany's
Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival.

Her debut recording "Sauvagerie Courtoise" on Unit Records was released in 1994. Her second recording ''Ocre" on Enja Records (Music for barrel organ, piano, tuba, bass and percussion ) led to appearances on concert stages all over Europe. In the following years, Courvoisier released 6 CDs as a leader, and 10 CDs as a Co-leader, and more than 20recordings as a side person or as a guest. Her latest releases as a leader are: "ABATON” with Mark Feldman and Erik Friedlander on ECM Records (2004), “LONELYVILLE” with her new quintet on Intakt Records (2007) and a solo piano album, SIGNS AND EPIGRAMS, on Tzadik Records (2007).

Since 1995, she has been touring widely with her own groups and as a side person in USA, Canada and Europe including Jazz and New Music Festivals such as Berlin, Willisau,
Donaueschingen, Banlieue Bleue, Saalfelden, Groningen, Visions NY, Nürnberg, Taktlos, London LMC, Bath Festival, Muenster and Victoriaville Festival, among others.

Sylvie is currently the leader of her own quintet "Lonelyville" and the Trio Abaton.
She is a member of “Mephista”, an improvising trio with Ikue Mori and Susie Ibarra;” Herb
Robertson Quintet” with Tim Berne, Tom Rainey and Mark Dresser; in Trio along with Ellery
Eskelin and Vincent Courtois : John Zorn’s Cobra. She also performs regularly in Duo with violinist Mark Feldman.

Awards include Switzerland's 1996 Prix des jeunes créateurs and Zonta Club's 2000 Prix de laéation.

Vicky Chow

Canadian pianist Vicky Chow has performed extensively as a soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble member, and been hailed as ‘brilliant’ and ‘riveting’ by New York Times critic, Anthony Tommasini. She has performed in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Clark Studio Theatre, Orpheum Theatre, Roy Thomson Hall, Chan Center for the Performing Art, and the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, and has been a guest artist in the Desert Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society series, and Las Vegas Music Festival.
               
An advocate of contemporary music, Ms. Chow is currently pursuing a second Masters degree in Contemporary Piano Performance at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studies with Anthony de Mare and Christopher Oldfather, and performs in the program’s new music ensemble, Zero Gravity. Last year for the Beyond the Machine 7.0 new music festival, she premiered an ensemble work by Edward Bilous with the Juilliard School’s AXIOM Ensemble, a new work for piano and electronics by Andreas Weixler and Se-Lien Chuang, and performed Neil Rolnick’s Digits for Piano and Computer. In February 2008, Ms. Chow will appear at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with Zero Gravity, and in March will perform in Miami’s Contemporary Music Marathon, f(x). Along with performing new music, Ms. Chow also produces concert programs of new compositions by emerging composers, most recently at the Chelsea Art Museum and Gershwin Hotel in New York City.

Ms. Chow started playing the piano at age five and made her orchestral debut at 10 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Since then she has appeared with the Juilliard Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Academy Orchestra, White Rock Festival String Orchestra, the B.C. Sinfonietta. She has performed under numerous conductors, including Jeffrey Milarsky, JoAnne Falletta, Bramwell Tovey, Victor Feldbrill, and Clyde Mitchell, and also collaborated with Juilliard faculty cellist André Emelianoff, New York Philharmonic flutist Renée Siebert, and The Metropolitan Opera soprano Janet Hopkins.

As the winner of numerous awards and competitions, Ms. Chow earned international recognition early in her career. She placed first in the Canadian Music Competition four consecutive years, resulting in an invitation at the age of nine to the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Michigan as part of the Classical Music Prodigies Showcase in Michigan. Ms. Chow also won the Toronto Symphony Piano Competition and Juilliard Concerto competition, second prize in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Piano Competition, third prize in the Pacific International Piano Competition, and a finalist and honorarium prize winner of the San Antonio International Piano Competition.
 
Ms. Chow received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin. In Vancouver she studied with Lorraine Ambrose at the Vancouver Academy of Music and privately with Celia Hui. While at Juilliard, Ms. Chow participated in the Millenium International Festival in Spain, Piano Fest in the Hamptons, and the International Keyboard Festival at the Banff Center. She’s also performed in master classes with a number of distinguished pianists, including Ursula Oppens, Joseph Kalichstein, Matti Raekallio, Boris Slutsky, Dominique Weber, Angela Cheng, Jerome Lowenthal, Menahem Pressler, Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, John Perry, Yong-Hi Moon, Marc Durand, Lee Kum-Sing, Marek Jablonski, Ruth Laredo, Gabriel Chodos and Jane Coop. Ms. Chow resides in New York City.