Metropolitan Piano Stories
Saturday, March 18, 2023 at 7:30 pm
MRP’s second annual program of piano music by living women composers from the NYC metropolitan area with each piece having a special story behind its creation. Performed by Barbara Podgurski and Beata Moon, joined by guest composers who will introduce or perform their own works.
Artists:
Beata Moon, piano/composer
Barbara Podgurski, piano
Guest composers will introduce their works
Guest composers:
Victoria Bond - Nia Imani Franklin - Tania León - Beata Moon - Meredith Monk - Niloufar Nourbakhsh - Dalit Warshaw
Program:
Beata Moon Inter - Mez - Zo (2006)
Tania León Variación (2004)
Dalit Warshaw Notes on an Improvisation (2022)
Nilofar Nourbakhsh Quest (2013)
Nia Imani Franklin Clouds in Theory; Gold - the Hardest Hue to Hold; Hymn for Piano (2015/2016)
Victoria Bond Illuminations of Byzantine Chant (2021)
I. Potiron Sotiru - II. Simeron Kremate - III. Enite ton Kyrion
Beata Moon Mental States (2023)
Meredith Monk Paris (1972)
Meredith Monk Phantom Waltz (1989); Folk Dance (1994) - for two pianos
Beata Moon Red & Blue (2020); Zippy (2023) - for two pianos
A versatile musician acclaimed for her expressivity and sincerity, Beata Moon continues to reach audiences through her many-faceted roles as composer, pianist, educator, impresario and activist. An American of Korean descent, Moon was born in North Dakota and raised in Indiana, where she began studying piano at age five. She made her orchestral debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at age eight and concertized throughout the Midwest, giving recitals and appearing with various orchestras in the region. Moon graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School where she was a student of Adele Marcus.
After completing a semester of the Masters Degree Program at Juilliard, she took a break from playing to reflect on what music meant to her personally. It was at this time that she discovered composing and teaching, which resulted in a return to performing.
The role of the composer as performer and educator is an important one in Moon’s life. She is an ardent ambassador for new music and has enjoyed working as a music television host (WNYE; NY, NY) as well as an impresario in her outreach to broader audiences. Moon has also worked with youth in homeless shelters and performed in community facilities.
Moon composes music in a variety of genres: orchestral, concert band, solo instrumental, chamber, and vocal, including children’s songs. Her four CDs of original music were enthusiastically received by press and public alike and continue to be broadcast throughout the world. Reviewer Andrew Druckenbrod of Gramophone magazine wrote, “Moon writes compelling music that is utterly sincere.” She has created and performed interactive concerts for children for Musica Reginae, a classical music collective based in Queens, NY. Moon also works as a teaching artist for Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic and Marquis Studios where she has led workshops and designed curricula tailored for students and participants of various backgrounds and disabilities.
Moon incorporates current social issues to use as inspiration for creative-choice making in her activities. She was recipient of the International Teaching Artist Conference grant and traveled to Seoul, Korea in 2019 to work with the El Sistema-based Orchestra Dream in Seongbuk and its teaching artists. Moon was one of the presenters at ITAC5. She has facilitated conversations about race and restorative justice and believes in the power of music and the arts to heal and work towards social change. She is a staff developer at the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.
Moon enjoys interacting with the audience in her piano recitals, which feature both traditional and contemporary works. She poses inquiry questions in her interactive recitals to engage and inspire curiosity from audience members and listeners.
Through her various roles as a teaching artist, performer, composer and activist, Moon is able to fulfill her wish to work musically with people of all ages and backgrounds. She believes that going beyond the listening experience, engaging in the actual composition and creation of music is an invigorating way to process life’s varied experiences while striving towards social change. Moon hopes to reach and engage all people through her music and work.
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 and has performed at many of the world’s finest venues including a number of performances at Carnegie Hall. She has been featured in numerous television and radio broadcasts, including appearances on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase, WNYC’s “Soundcheck”, NPR, WPLN Nashville’s “Live from Studio C”, WQED and numerous others. Ms. Podgurski was recently featured on a television documentary for NHK in Japan with her touring partner violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn and the famed “Red” Mendelssohn Stradivarius. Ms. Podgurski was a special guest in March 2015 performing for the National Association of Broadcasters at the 2015 Golden Mike Awards with Grammy-nominated violinist Jenny Oaks Baker. Past collaborations with renowned artists including violinists Philippe Graffin and the late Lorand Fenyves, flutist Harold Jones, clarinetist Charles Neidich, pianists Diane Walsh and Seymour Lipkin, and cellists Manfred Stilz, Marcy Rosen and the late Paul Tobias.
Dr. Podgurski has premiered numerous new works including a commission of a concerto by Pulitzer-Prize winning composer George Walker which she premiered with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. She is a dedicated proponent of new music, focusing on premiering works of NYC based composers and programming such works each season. Barbara has been working for a number of years with the Department of Cultural Affairs as a contact for organizing and contracting musicians for the 9-11 Commemoration Memorial (live televised broadcast from Ground Zero in NYC) and in 2015 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 Papal visit to NYC.
Dr. Podgurski is currently the Executive and Artistic Director of Musica Reginae Productions in Queens, NY. She is also a member of the Pitcairn-Podgurski-Drachman Piano Trio which just completed its first US tour. A former faculty member at The Mannes College of Music (The New School), Hunter College (CUNY) and Mercy College (NY), she is currently on the faculty of the RiverArts Music Program in Hudson Valley and is a consultant for the Board of Education for both New York City and New York State. By invitation in 2014, Dr. Podgurski became a Steinway Teaching Artist.
Recent performances include concerts at Carnegie Hall (NY), at the Luzerne Summer Music Festival (NY) and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, Trinity Church (NYC), concerts in Palm Beach (FL) and St. Croix (USVI), as well as performing Mozart Piano Concerto in c minor K.491 as soloist with the Astoria Symphony Orchestra in NYC. Barbara is currently a contributing writer to Cambridge’s Nineteenth Century Music Review, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at BMCC (CUNY) and is a staff pianist in the Strings Department at NYU, Barbara performed with rock band Evanescence on their 2017-18 Synthesis Tour and recently performed with legendary vocal group Il Divo their 2019 and 2022 US tours. Barbara is an Arts Commissioner Advisor for the Queens Council on the Arts. In November 2020 Barbara accepted the position of organist/music director at Trinity St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maspeth, Queens. Her most recent performance was at Carnegie Hall in May 2022 celebrating the release of the album Song of the Redwood Tree..