This All-Russian Concert will include both the Shostakovich and the Rachmaninoff cello sonatas as well as solo piano pieces by Scriabin and Prokofiev.

Cellist Robert Blais and pianist Diane Huling, both from the Central Vermont area, will give a performance of all-Russian music Sunday, November 23rd at 4PM at ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret. VT. The program will include both the Shostakovich and the Rachmaninoff cello sonatas as well as solo piano pieces by Scriabin and Prokofiev. It is a collection of music that represents the emotional and even political gamut of Russia and the Soviet Union. The Shostakovich Sonata brings the gritty, haunting and harsh – and at times absurd – realities of a war-ravaged country and, despite its lush and passionate beauty, the Rachmaninoff also brings the massive emotionality of the composer’s grief in his exile and his inability to return home. “Scriabin’s smaller works are gorgeous, mystical, and Prokofiev’s beautiful Children’s Pieces are represented by a delightful waltz. They balance the proportion of the two huge sonatas”, says pianist Huling.

Robert Blais, the artistic director of the Green Mountain Youth Symphony has played chamber music with the Uterlinde-Johnston-Blais Trio and the Pythagorean Trio in the Columbia University Artist Series. He has appeared as soloist with the Holyoke Symphony, the Melrose Symphony orchestra, the Guilford Festival Orchestra and the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra. Blais presently performs throughout the Northeast as a soloist and chamber musician and teaches at his studio in Montpelier, Vermont. Learn more.

Huling is a virtuoso pianist in demand worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician. She has performed hundreds of concerts throughout the United States, Canada, South America and Europe, giving debuts in London, Paris and New York to critical acclaim. She holds two performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Maria Luisa Faini. In addition, she has worked with Leonard Shure, Dalton Baldwin, Paul Badura-Skoda and Malcolm Bilsson. Her teaching career is extensive, including faculty positions at Dartmouth College, and Johnson State College in Vermont, where she received full professorship before taking an early retirement.

FREE!

For more information visit www.artistreevt.org or call 802.457-3500.