Professors David Yearsley and Annette Richards in Concert
Join us for two exciting concerts this week, featuring Professors David Yearsley and Annette Richards.
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Mike Cheng-Yu Lee performs an All-Chopin Program in Barnes Hall
For this unique occasion, Mike will make use of the CCHK's 1850 Pleyel "pianino," an instrument of unusual artistic merit that was a mainstay of Chopin's career as a composer and teacher. Works include a selection of those Chopin composed during his 1838–39 stay in Majorca and his late masterpiece, the Sonata in B Minor, Op. 58.
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Organist Anne Laver performs in Anabel Taylor Chapel on Friday, February 3
Join us this Friday, February 3 to welcome organist Anne Laver in a program of dances, chorales, and fugues spanning five centuries on the Baroque-style organ in Anabel Taylor chapel.
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The Salon Project kicks off with Sezi Seskir and Keiran Campbell on Friday, January 27
The CCHK is thrilled to welcome Sezi Seskir (fortepiano) and Keiran Campbell (cello) on Friday, January 27 for the first salon of our Spring 2023 series, The Salon Project, co-sponsored with the Society for the Humanities.
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Announcing Spring 2023 Events
From full length concerts and organ recitals to shorter lunchtime offerings and early evening salons, from early pianos to the Aeolian-Skinner organ, with faculty, students, and distinguished guest artists, the CCHK's Spring 2023 series runs the gamut of keyboard history and culture.
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Organ Concerts, Spring 2023
In a full roster of 13 organ recitals this semester we offer a series of glimpses into the extraordinarily long history of the instrument and its music, with Cornell’s organists and two special guests at Cornell’s three recital instruments.
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Annette Richards publishes new book: The Temple of Fame and Friendship
Published by the University of Chicago Press, Annette Richards' new book, The Temple of Fame and Friendship: Portraits, Music, and History in the C. P. E. Bach Circle, examines the renowned portrait collection assembled by C. P. E. Bach, J. S. Bach’s second son.
/news/annette-richards-publishes-new-book-temple-fame-and-friendship-0
Ryan McCullough And Lucy Fitz Gibbon At The CCHK
We are delighted to welcome longtime friends of the CCHK, pianist Ryan McCullough and vocalist Lucy Fitz Gibbon, back to campus for the semester’s final salon event on Friday, December 2. In the meantime, listen to their new recording, “the labor of forgetting.”
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Rex Lawson At Midday Music For Organ
Join us on Wednesday, November 2 during the usual Midday Music for Organ timeslot (12:30–1:15pm) to enjoy a special presentation delivered by world-renowned pianolist and expert on the history of mechanical music, Rex Lawson.
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Jerome Begin and David Friend, Post-
Join us for a special performance by composer Jerome Begin and pianist David Friend (Cornell ’19). The duo performs their GRAMMY-nominated album, Post-, in Barnes Hall.
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The Young Robert Schumann
Our previously scheduled salon, “Piano Players and Player Pianos: Mechanical Instruments, Human Performances,” has been postponed and replaced with a new salon, “The Young Robert Schumann.” The event takes place on Friday, October 28 at 5PM in the Guerlac Room of Cornell’s historic A. D. White House.
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Return Of The Aeolian-Skinner Organ
Having been painstakingly cleaned pipe-by-pipe, the reeds fully restored, and the wind chests releathered, the university’s treasured Aeolian-Skinner Organ is finally complete again, and closer to the original vision of its designer, the legendary G. Donald Harrison, than it has been for a very long time.
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A History of Decay: Developing a Sonic Archive for the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards
A History of Decay: Developing a Sonic Archive for the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards
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Summer Academy Schedule
The CCHK's inaugural Forte/Piano Summer Academy will take place next week, from July 31–August 7, on Cornell's Ithaca campus. All events are free and open to the public.
/news/summer-academy-schedule
Announcing Summer Academy Pianists
The roster of admitted pianists to our inaugural Forte/Piano Summer Academy, to be held on Cornell's Ithaca campus this July–August, has been announced. The line-up boasts exciting young artists from across Europe, Asia, and North and South America, and from high-school to post-doctoral levels.
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CCHK to Reprise “The Piano Trios of Robert Schumann”
The CCHK is pleased to reprise “The Piano Trios of Robert Schumann," featuring Professor Xak Bjerken's trio, the Taliesin Trio, which was previously given as part of our salon series at the A. D. White House. This special Mother's Day event will take place on Sunday, May 8 at the Ithaca Waldorf School.
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Piano and Voice Students Celebrate Women's Day
To celebrate International Women's Day, Lucy Fitz Gibbon (Cornell's interim director of vocal studies) organized a master class and recital for students in the voice and piano studios that featured art song and solo piano repertoire by women composers.
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The CCHK Salon Series Continues Through Spring 2022
The CCHK is excited to continue our new Friday evening Salon series as we segue into the sunnier side of Spring 2022.
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Teaching Activities in our Keyboard Gallery
Our space at 726 University Avenue has seen extensive use for external teaching. We have been able to share the resources of our center with those outside Cornell through digital technology and we have hosted guest teaching artists and students on site.
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HereNowHear plays Stockhausen's MANTRA
Stockhausen’s MANTRA (1970), to be performed by our fellow keyboarding colleagues Andrew Zhou and Ryan McCullough of HereNowHear, amalgamates electronics with the acoustic piano in ways that blur the line between the analog and the digital.
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Winter Conferences Explore Cutting-Edge Approaches to Historical Keyboards
Over the course of January–February 2022, the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboard and its affiliate organizations, the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies and Cornell ReSounds, put on two conferences devoted to cutting-edge approaches to historical keyboards.
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Cornell ReSounds Hosts Play | Pen
On February 4–5, the CCHK’s partner organization, Cornell ReSounds, presented play | pen, a two-day virtual symposium concentrating on connections between past musical inventions and new media designs.
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Fall 2021 Piano Video Highlights
As a denouement to the semester, we are sharing three beautifully produced videos, including excerpts from Mike Lee’s program, “Bach’s Piano,” on September 24, and a set of highlights from the end-of-semester gala concert on December 10.
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New Web Content From Future Imperfect: Brahms And The Passage Of Time
See the roundtable with eminent Brahms scholar, Jacquelyn Sholes, and a performance of Brahms’s Intermezzo in A Major Op. 118, no. 2, by Malcolm Bilson, in the videos posted in this article.
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Fall 2021 Season Announcement
Announcement of Fall 2021 piano and organ events.
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History, Music, Physics Harmonize In Keyboard Project
This Cornell student led project demonstrates how instruments, performance and research intersect at the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards.
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Conrad Graf Piano (Opus 502) Arrives in Ithaca
The Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards is delighted to announce the arrival of Conrad Graf Opus 502 (ca. 1823-24) into our collection. The piano is the generous gift of Nancy Garrett, Professor Emeritus of Piano at the Butler School of Music, University of Texas at Austin (who is also the benefactor of our 1799 Broadwood).Opus 502 was bought...
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Undergraduate Teaching at CCHK: Chamber Music
Jen Yi (violin, Operations Research & Information Engineering '22) reflects on her participation in chamber music last fall and this semester with Madeline McCanne (piano, Chemistry '21). “Last fall, Madeline and I worked on Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin, K. 304, coached by Ji Young Kim. It was an interesting semester because,...
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ONEcomposer: Highlighting the Life and Work of Florence Price
Much of my 2018-19 academic year was spent preparing for a residency at the Museum of African American History on Nantucket Island with the Cornell Chamber Singers. Nantucket’s Quaker roots brought about an early abolitionist culture, drawing Frederick Douglass to the island in 1841 for his first public address. In March of 2018, the museum’s main...
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Music as Refuge: Schedule
In turbulent times, music can accompany us into places of refuge, or is itself a means of escape. Music opens up imaginary worlds. This semester’s series, Music as Refuge, reflects on these themes in a series of short recitals performed by Cornell’s pianists and organists.High points of this series are two programs by pianists Xak Bjerken and...
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David Yearsley Appointed Herbert Gussman Professor Of Music
David Yearsley Appointed Herbert Gussman Professor Of Music
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Organ Music for Advent and Christmas with Annette Richards and David Yearsley
Program: All music by J. S. BachChorale Prelude: “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” BWV 645Chorale Prelude: “Nun komm’, der Heiden Heiland,” BWV 659Canonic Variations on the Christmas Hymn “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her,” BWV 769aToccata and Fugue in F major, BWV 540 From the PerformerBach’s oeuvre for the organ is rich with music for...
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A Mighty Fortress: Michael Plagerman Plays Reger, Widor, and John Knowles Paine
ProgramJohn Knowles Paine: Variations on “Old Hundred”Charles-Marie Widor: Andante Sostenuto, from Symphonie no. 9, Op. 70 (“Gothique”)Max Reger: Phantasie über den Choral “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” Op. 27 From the PerformerWhen Bostonian John Knowles Paine premiered his Variations on “Old Hundred” in 1861, it was less than a year...
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Suspended in Time: Annette Richards Plays Buxtehude, Frescobaldi, Mozart, Krebs, and Bach
ProgramDieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707): Passacaglia in d minor, BuxWV 161Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643): Toccata terza, per l’elevazione, from Il secondo libro di Toccate (1627)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Andante in F major for musical clock, K. 616Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780): Chorale prelude: “Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott”...
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Xak Bjerken Plays Elizabeth Ogonek's Orpheus Suite
When Covid-19 came to Ithaca in mid March, as with most other musicians, all concerts were cancelled and thus my immediate reason to practice was gone. For the first time in my life, I didn’t touch the piano for three months. I was floundering around, trying to find repertoire to inspire me—and the piece that was my refuge I present today:...
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Fantastical Refuges: David Yearsley Plays Organ Works by Handel
Program Works of G. F. Handel (1685-1759) arranged and elaborated by David Yearsley:Overture to Messiah (HWV 56) followed by Fugue in E minor (HWV 429)Passacaille in G (Op. 5, No. 4, HWV 399)“Lord to Thee Each Night and Day” from Theodora (HWV 68)Yearsley:Buxtehudian Fantasy on “High Above Cayuga Waters” From the PerformerOn the...
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1857 Streicher Piano Arrives
The newest addition to our instrument collection is an 1857 J. B. Streicher Opus 5294—with Viennese action—generously gifted by Alan Bostrom, a retired statistician and an accomplished amateur musician.
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Organ Recitals return (online) for Fall 2020
The Fall 2020 semester is now well under way, and the Cornell organists are hard at work. With Sage Chapel as a Covid testing site, Anabel Taylor Hall shut for the duration of the semester, and Barnes Hall largely occupied as a teaching space, access to the organs is tricky. But we have permission to work in Anabel Taylor chapel, we have Sage...
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A Decade of Julius Eastman
In this research-profile, DMA candidate Richard Valitutto documents his ongoing work into the music, performance practice, and personality of Julius Eastman. Committed to keyboard cultures across their long history—including those from the nearest past—this research is proudly supported by the CCHK in synergy with the Cornell DMA program in keyboard studies.
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A Seventeenth-Century Organist's Psalter
The Psalms of David were a rich source of music inspiration for the Protestant denominations across seventeenth-century Europe. Join us in Anabel Taylor Chapel for an evening concert of chorale variations, fantasias and intabulations from northern climes on the Cornell Baroque organ at 8pm, April 10th. Jakob Praetorius' grand, imposing cycle on...
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