Potpourri: American Piano Miniatures

Judith Olson and her students perform solos and duets by a diverse group of American composers including "Sketches in Color" by Robert Starer, in honor of his 100th birthday, and Gordon Sherwood’s little-known "Sonata in Blue" for four-hands.

Performers

Judith Olson and Students, piano

Program

Summer Dreams, Op. 47 for four hands - Amy Beach

Sonatina, Op. 41 - Dianne Rahbee

Three Teeny Preludes - P.D.Q. Bach

Subway in the Sunlight - William Mayer

Sketches in Color - Robert Starer

Soundshots - Louise Talma

Little Suite - Lou Harrison

Album for the Young - Roberto Sierra

Three Moods - Aaron Copland

Excursions - Samuel Barber

Sonata in Blue, Op. 66 for four hands - Gordon Sherwood

Seating first come first serve

Masks Optional

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Judith Olson began her musical studies as a violinist. As a high school student, she won numerous prizes and competitions, served as concertmaster of the All-Southern California High School Symphony, and was awarded a full scholarship to the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

She began her college studies as a violin major at the University of Redlands in California where she became a member of the University of Redlands String Quartet. As piano was a requirement, she took her first lesson at the age of seventeen. After only seven months of study, she appeared in concert as first prizewinner of the Redlands Bowl Young Artists Competition and was engaged as soloist with the Riverside Symphony.

After two years at Redlands, Ms. Olson auditioned for The Juilliard School as a pianist (but brought her violin along, just in case). She was accepted, and subsequently received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees as a scholarship pupil of Beveridge Webster. After graduation, she worked extensively with Nadia Reisenberg. Ms. Olson made her New York debut with Alexander Schneider conducting Walter Piston’s Concertino and has since toured North, Central, and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Korea as soloist and in collaboration with leading instrumentalists. She has appeared at major halls, including Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Kennedy Center, and has participated in the festivals of Ankara, Bard, Bar Harbor, Capri, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Killington, and Newport. Her early violin experience has given her a special love and affinity for ensemble playing, and she has appeared with many prominent violinists, including Kyung Wha Chung, Eugene Fodor, Miriam Fried, Joseph Fuchs, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Tossy Spivakovsky, and Rolf Schulte.

This versatile artist has performed Beethoven at Bard, Rachmaninoff at Newport and has appeared as soloist on numerous new music series in New York. She has premiered works written for her, including Otto Luening’s last work for piano, Fantasia Etudes (1994), and is the dedicatee of works by William Mayer, Ned Rorem, Dianne Goolkasian-Rahbee, and others. She has championed the work of Norwegian composer Olav Anton Tohmmessen, whose work she premiered at Merkin Concert Hall. According to critic Harris Goldsmith, the solo piano works were “played to the hilt by Judith Olson with bright tone and acute driving rhythm.” As a Special Award winner in the 1981 International American Music Competition sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation, she was featured in a nationally televised documentary, “Playing to Win.” David Burge wrote in Keyboard Magazine of her performance, “For sheer delightfulness, nothing could surpass New Yorker Judith Olson’s interpretation of John Cage’s 0’0” Solo to be performed in any way by anyone.”

Ms. Olson has recorded for Albany, Capstone, Newport Classics, MMO Laureate Series, Cambria, and RCA. She is currently on the faculty of the Bloomingdale School of Music in New York.