An Evening of Chamber Music
Saturday, November 14, 2026 at 7pm
Tickets
A concert and reception honoring our dear co-founding board member Joan M. Barnes who passed away during our last season. Joan was an integral part of making MRP the success that has become and she was so very proud to watch it grow and thrive. This concert showcases a few of her favorite musical works as well as a few of the musicians she loved most - "Robert who plays cello so beautifully" and "Canadian Sarah" (Mrs. B. was Canadian so she liked Sarah just a little extra!) Sarah also plays the violin very beautifully, by the way! The program will make you laugh and will make you cry but more importantly you will be sharing music in the same space Mrs. B. came to hear MRP play these pieces and lots more. We know that this will be a special evening and we look forward to sharing this night with you. This concert is a free concert thanks to Joan and her legacy fund. We ask you to reserve your spots through the Eventbrite link or through emailing us at musicareginae@gmail.com so we can get a headcount for the reception.
Performing Artists:
Sarah Pratt Parsamian (violin)
Robert Burkhart (cello)
Barbara Podgurski (piano)
Program:
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19
I. Lento - Allegro moderato
II. Allegro scherzando
III. Andante
IV. Allegro mosso
Christian Sinding: Frühlingsrauschen (Rustle of Spring), Op. 32, No. 3
Jules Massenet: Méditation from the operaThaïs
Antonin Dvořâk: Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor, Op. 65
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Allegretto grazioso
III. Poco adagio
IV. Finale. Allegro con brio
Originally from Listowel, ON, and currently based in New York, NY, acclaimed violinist Sarah Pratt-Parsamian enjoys a diverse and exciting musical career. She has been a prizewinner at the Jeunesses Musicales International Violin Competition, and Silver Medal winner in the Canadian National Music Competition. At the age of 14 she made her solo debut with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra at the Guelph Spring Festival in Ontario, and since has performed as soloist with orchestras in Canada and the U.S., including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa. Recently highlights include a riveting performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Stratford Symphony Orchestra, (Stratford, ON).
An avid chamber musician and recital artist, Sarah has performed across Canada and the United States, including Stratford Summer Music Festival, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, the Arts and Letters Club, Heliconian Club (Toronto), the British Art Museum (New Haven, CT), Bargemusic (New York, NY), the Detroit Institute of Art (Detroit, MI), Clefworks (Montgomery, AB), and others.
Sarah is a temporary member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, having joined the company for the current season. She also performs as a substitute with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, with whom she has traveled on tours across the United States, Europe and Asia. She is a member of the New York City Opera Orchestra, a position she has held since 2006.
Sarah holds a Bachelor in Performance Degree from the University of Toronto, Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University, and Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. When her violin is resting, Sarah can be found jogging on park trails, climbing trees with her children, hiking with her camera, or curled up on the couch with a good book and a glass of wine.
Cellist Robert Burkhart combines a deep commitment to the existing cello repertoire with what the New Yorker magazine calls an “adventurous” spirit in new music. With performance credits at Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and The Rose Studio at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Robert has also appeared as a soloist throughout Japan as a member of the New York Symphonic Ensemble, and been featured in recital on WQXR’s “Young Artist Showcase.”
At the center of new music in New York, Robert has performed with the American Modern Ensemble, Argento New Music Project, Fireworks Ensemble, Newspeak, and SONYC. Recent collaborations include Uri Caine, Georg Friedrich Haas, Aaron Jay Kernis, Steve Mackey, Joan Tower, Charles Wourinen, and Chen Yi. He has performed the New York premiere of John Harbison’s Abu Ghraib for cello and piano, and was the soloist in Augusta Read Thomas’s Passion Prayers for cello and chamber ensemble at the New York Times Center.
Robert’s major teachers include Paul Tobias at The Mannes College of Music and Uri Vardi at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he has worked with Timothy Eddy, Aldo Parisot, and Janos Starker at festivals and masterclasses. Robert has taught at Juilliard Pre-college, Mannes Prep, Syracuse University, and Music Conservatory of Westchester, and been artist-in-residence at Yale University and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. His recent CD “20/21: Music for Cello and Piano from the 20th and 21st Centuries,” features pianist Blair McMillen and the premiere of a work for cello and piano by composer Andrew Waggoner. Robert’s recording of solo Bach on the American Express commercial “Don’t Take Chances. Take Charge.” has garnered national attention.
A native of New York, pianist and teaching artist Barbara Podgurski holds a DMA in piano performance from The Graduate Center (CUNY) as well as a BM in piano performance and an MM in both piano performance and music theory from the Mannes College of Music. Dr. Podgurski has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Europe, including a number of performances at Carnegie Hall. She has been featured in television and radio broadcasts which include appearances on WQXR, WNYC’s “Soundcheck”, NPR, WPLN, WQED and numerous others. Dr. Podgurski was featured on a television documentary for NHK in Japan with her touring partner violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn and the famed “Red” Mendelssohn Stradivarius. She was also a past special guest performing for the National Association of Broadcasters with Grammy-nominated violinist Jenny Oaks Baker and was invited with her colleagues to perform at a private ceremony for Pope Francis and members of the United Nations in an interfaith prayer service during the last Papal visit to NYC.
A former faculty member at The Mannes College of Music, Hunter College and Mercy College, she is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at BMCC (CUNY), Staff Pianist for the Strings Department at NYU, and is on the faculty of the RiverArts Music Program in Hudson Valley. Barbara is a consultant for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs as well as for the Board of Education in both NYC and NYS. By invitation in 2014, Dr. Podgurski became a Steinway Teaching Artist. She has performed with rock band Evanescence on their 2017/18 Synthesis Tour and with legendary vocal group Il Divo on their 2019 “Timeless” Tour and 2022 Greatest Hits Tour. Barbara recently completed a project with Alison Cook Beatty modern ballet company in NYC, performing Bartok 2nd Sonata for Piano and Violin and Shostakovich Preludes live on stage during performance. Barbara is currently a contributing writer to Cambridge’s Nineteenth Century Music and has been an Arts Commissioner Advisor for the Queens Council on the Arts and is Chief Advisor on the advisory board of NY Sound Circuit. Barbara is the organist and music director at Trinity St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maspeth, Queens. Barbara is featured in a documentary titled “A Taste of Chamber Music” which will be released in Spring 2026 on PBS.org and allarts.org. Barbara is the Associate Director of KIISS – The Krakauer Institute for Intensive Summer Study in Vaison-la-Romaine, France. Barbara is the Assistant to the Conductor and pianist for The Oratorio Society of Queens.