Events

Cornell’s collection of historical keyboard instruments ranges from the eighteenth century to the present day. Incorporating both original instruments and modern copies, it draws musicians and scholars from around the world for performances, teaching, and study. Each semester’s series of events explores the rich variety of keyboard culture while making the instruments themselves a central focus, from early nineteenth-century pianos made by Joseph Simon (Vienna, 1834) and Pleyel et Cie. (Paris, 1843 and 1865) to the analog Minimoog Model D synthesizer (Trumansburg, 1970) by way of Sage Chapel’s Aeolian-Skinner organ (Boston, 1940). Events this Spring semester include full-length recitals on organs and pianos, midweek musical breaks at the campus organs, and intimate music making in the domestic and social setting of the A. D. White House at our Friday salons.

Highlights include a recital (February 7) and salon (May 9) by CCHK Visiting Fellow Gabriel Merrill-Steskal, the return of renowned pianist Ashley Wass (April 12), and the visit of acclaimed organist Isabelle Demers (February 23). Other salons will feature baritone Jean Bernard Cerin and pianist Sezi Seskir (February 14), CCHK Visiting Artistic Consultant Andrew Willis with guest string trio The Vivaldi Project (March 14), and CCHK Postdoctoral Artist in Residence Patricia García Gil with a program drawn from the archive of music belonging to French chemist and salonnière Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier (1758-1836). The CCHK will also host Keyboard Energies (April 25-26), a two-day symposium on the forces and resources that have powered keyboard instruments over the centuries.

You’ll find the full schedule of the semester’s events, free and open to all, below. Please join us!
 

Co-sponsored by the Society for the Humanities, the Salon Project brings together music, instruments, research, and conversation in a compact, hour-length format at the historic A. D. White House on select Fridays at 5pm.

January 31: “A Salon on Music and Science Inspired by Madame Lavoisier” with Patricia Garcia-Gil

February 14: “Un Amour Glacé: Meditations on Love, Sadness, & Nature in Francophone Salons” featuring Jean Bernard Cerin and Sezi Seskir will explore how French, Canadian, and Haitian composers have explored melancholy and escapism in the mélodie and piano music.

March 14: Andrew Willis with the Vivaldi Project in a program combining the little-known classical string trios by Haydn and Boccherini alongside Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G Minor.

May 9: “Music of Mozart, Chopin, and Beethoven” with Gabriel Merrill-Steskal will explore possibilities of melodic ornamentation in the music of Mozart and Chopin. By examining model compositions with written out ornaments of repeated themes, we can learn not only how to embellish one instance of a theme, but also how to structure a series of variations over time in an organic way.

February 1, 7:30pm (Anabel Taylor Chapel). David Yearsley and Martin Davids (baroque violin).
“In the Cabinet of Wonders with Schop and Scheidemann.”  Baroque violinist Martin Davids joins David Yearsley to launch their new album of music for violin and organ from 17th-century Hamburg.

February 7, 7:30pm (Film Forum at Schwartz Center). Gabriel Merrill-Steskal. Fortepiano.
“Encounters with the English Piano in 1794 and 2023 (feat. Joseph Haydn and Michael Kropf)”

This lecture-recital will explore the differences between Viennese and English pianos at the turn of the 19th century. It will include a demonstration on how Haydn wrote differently for Viennese and English pianos, performing a fantasy he wrote in Vienna on a replica of a Schantz piano from 1800, and one of his “London” sonatas on a Broadwood piano from 1799. Also included will be a piece written in 2023 by Michael Kropf for Gabriel’s very own early 19th century Broadwood square piano. Investigating how two very different composers changed how they wrote piano music for the c. 1800 English piano (Haydn on trips to London in the 1790s, and Kropf in Detroit in 2023) will provide an excellent launching point for discussing these pianos, pianos in general, and the music written for them. Additionally, music from this time invites the performer to actively engage with the musical text in the form of ornamentation and embellishment.

February 23, 3pm (Sage Chapel). Distinguished Guest Artist: Isabelle Demers. Organ. “The Virtuoso Organist”

A program of works by Laurin, Franck, Thalben-Ball, and transcriptions by Demers of Stravinsky, Elgar, and Brahms.

March 11, 7:30pm (Anabel Taylor Chapel). Annette Richards. Organ. “Rrrrrrrrr.”
Mauricio Kagel’s “Rrrrrr” suite, plus Radek, Reincken, Rheinberger and other Baroque “rrrrr’s”.

April 22, 7:30pm (Anabel Taylor Chapel). The Cornell Organists Unplugged III.
Celebrating Earth Day with an electricity-free concert of foot-pumped baroque music and more, with Annette Richards, David Yearsley and their students.

April 29, 7:30pm (Sage Chapel). Jeffrey Snedeker. “L’Orgue Mystique: Music for the Feasts of Ascension and Pentecost from 17th- and 20th-century France.”   
Including works by Nivers, de Grigny, Tournemire, Messiaen, and Duruflé.
 

April 12, 7:30pm (Barnes Hall). Ashley Wass

April 25 & April 26, 7:30pm (Barnes Hall). Keyboard Energies

Midday Music for Organ offers informal 40-minute programs on alternate Wednesdays at 12:30pm, performed by Cornell faculty, graduate students, and guests, giving busy Cornellians musical respite at the center of the week. Events take place across campus.

February 12 (Sage Chapel). Guest Anne Spink. “The Art of the Organist.” Includes music by Sweelinck, Buxtehude, Mozart and Connor Chee.

February 26 (Sage Chapel). Guests Anne Laver and William Knuth (violin). “Strings and Pipes.” Includes the world premiere of Natalie Draper’s “Interlaced” for organ and violin, plus music by Handel, J. S. Bach and Chris DeBlasio.

March 12 (Sage Chapel). Jack Yarborough. “The Early Contemporary.” Includes ABD by Klaus Lang (Aeolian-Skinner organ) and Frescobaldi elevation toccatas (Vicedomini organ).

March 26 (Anabel Taylor Chapel). David Yearsley. “Annual Bach Birthday Bash.”  Includes the Trio Sonata in D minor, BWV 527 and the Toccata and Fugue in F major, BWV 540.

April 16 (Sage Chapel). Adam Langeveld. “Echoes of Late Romantic Paris.” Toccatas and more by Boëllman, Widor and Gigout.

April 30 (Anabel Taylor Chapel). Annette Richards. “Bach and Beyond.” Includes “Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig” BWV 768 and the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564.
 

Navigate to these pages to explore what the CCHK offered in the past semesters and themed series: