Violinist, pianist to open Music Series at Akin season
An award-winning violinist known for her "dazzling virtuosity" and a world-renowned pianist will open the sixth season of Midwestern State University's Music Series at Akin. Violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner will appear at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in Akin Auditorium. The concert is sponsored by the Perkins-Prothro Foundation and Joe and Dale Prothro with the Lamar D. Fain College of Fine Arts at MSU.
Koh is Musical America's 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year, a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, a prestigious award through New York City's Lincoln Center given to artists believed to have the potential for a solo career.
Koh has performed with major orchestras around the world including the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, BBC Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and National Symphony, among others. She frequently appears at major music centers and festivals, and played the role of Einstein in the revival of Philip Glass's opera Einstein On the Beach from 2012-2014. A highlight of her career was performing for Michelle Obama and South Korea's first lady Kim Yoon-ok in 2011.
Her latest album, Tchaikovsky: Complete Works for Violin and Orchestra with the Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Vedernikov was released this month. Koh and Wosner collaborated on the 2013 recording Signs, Games + Messages, violin and piano works by Janßček, Bartók, and Kurtßg.
Wosner has entertained audiences at Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, the Lincoln Center, the Santa Fe Musical Festival, Cal Performances in Berkeley, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Festival de Musica de Camara in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This is Wosner's second appearance at the Music Series at Akin. He performed at MSU with the acclaimed Miro Quartet in April 2014.
Born in Israel, Wosner studied piano with Emanuel Krasovsky as well as composition, theory, and improvisation with Andre Hajdu. He studied at the Julliard School. He also received an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Koh and Wosner's program will include Mozart's Sonata in G Major/G Minor K379, Beethoven's Sonata No. 5 "Spring," Debussy's Violin Sonata, and FaurÚ's Sonata in A Major Op. 13.
The season will conclude Feb. 14, 2017, with the Germany-based FaurÚ Quartett. Named for influential French composer and pianist Gabriel FaurÚ, the group has been called pioneers in their approach to piano quartet compositions.
The Music Series at Akin debuted in spring 2012 with pianist Yefim Bronfman. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and pianist Inon Barnatan, Irish pianist Barry Douglas, the Emerson Quartet, among other notable musicians, also have been guests of the series.
Tickets may be purchased by contacting the MSU Music Department at 940-397-4267, or visiting msufineartstickets.com. Cash or check payments may be mailed to Music Series at Akin, MSU Department of Music, 3410 Taft Blvd., Wichita Falls, Texas 76308. General admission tickets are $25 for each performance or $40 for season tickets. Tickets for senior citizens and military are $22.50 for each or $36 for season tickets.