Pianists Phyllis Alpert Lehrer and Suzanne Lehrer will be joined by clarinetist Ken Ellison to open the Westminster Conservatory at Nassau series on Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 12:15 p.m. at Nassau Presbyterian Church.
The 14th season of Westminster Conservatory at Nassau’s free noontime recitals performed by faculty members of Westminster Conservatory is set to begin on Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 12:15 p.m. with a program of music for piano duet, piano and clarinet by Mendelssohn and Schumann. The recital will take place in the Niles Chapel of Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau Street in Princeton.
The performers will be Phyllis Alpert Lehrer and Suzanne Lehrer on piano and Kenneth Ellison on clarinet. The program will consist of Felix Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words, Op. 19, No. 5 for solo piano and Andante and Variations, Op. 83a for piano duet, as well as Robert Schumann’s Romance in F-sharp Major, Op. 28 for solo piano and Fantasy Pieces, Op.73 for clarinet and piano. The show is open to the public free of charge.
Clarinetist Kenneth Ellison has performed internationally with many ensembles, including the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Riverside Symphonia, the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, and the American Fine Arts Festival. He has played under such conductors as Andrea Quinn, John Rutter, Frederick Fennell and Rossen Milanov, in venues such as Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Liszt School of Music. He performs regularly with the Chelsea Opera Company, Trio21, New Jersey Arts Collective, the Danzon Trio and he is a founding member of trio@play. Ellison teaches clarinet and saxophone at Westminster Conservatory and is an artist-in-residence at the Joshua Tree School.
Phyllis Alpert Lehrer has enjoyed an active career as a soloist, collaborative artist and clinician in the United States, Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom, El Salvador, Taiwan, Japan, Sweden, Russia and the Republic of Georgia. She is professor of Piano and director of graduate piano pedagogy at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. A founding member of the International Society for the Study of Tension in Performance, she contributes regularly to the Music Teachers National Association, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy and World Piano Pedagogy Conference.
Suzanne Lehrer joined the faculty of Westminster Conservatory in 1997 and has a large private studio in the Princeton area. She graduated from Westminster Choir College of Rider University in May 2000 with a Master of Music in Piano Performance. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Music with a concentration in Piano and a minor in English Literature from the University of Rochester. As part of her undergraduate education she studied classical and jazz piano at the Eastman School of Music. She is an active member of the New Jersey Music Teachers Association as well as the Music Teachers National Association, and is frequently called upon to adjudicate for local piano festivals and auditions.
The Westminster Conservatory at Nassau series is a collaborative effort between Nassau Presbyterian Church and Westminster Conservatory. It consists of eight recitals performed by members of the Westminster Conservatory faculty. Recitals are 30 to 40 minutes in length and take place on the third Thursday of the month, from September to May (except December) in the Niles Chapel of Nassau Presbyterian Church.
On October 15, 2015 Westminster Conservatory at Nassau will present flutist Jill Crawford, clarinetist Ken Ellison and violist Marjorie Selden.
This program is made possible in part by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
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