Child-friendly concert to feature four-hand piano performances

SUNY Oswego music faculty members Mihoko Tsutsumi and Juan La Manna will present a four-hand piano program at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 3, in Sheldon Hall ballroom in a Focus on Faculty concert featuring works that may particularly appeal to children, as well as adults.

“Many wonderful composers took a keen interest in creating masterpieces accessible to children, so that they could understand the stories behind them,” La Manna said. “The program features some pieces that were written with children in mind, or, as in the case of Mozart, that were composed by a child—he was 9 years old when he wrote his ‘Sonata in C major, K.19D.’”

Both playing one keyboard, Tsutsumi, choral director at SUNY Oswego, and La Manna, director of the College-Community Orchestra, also will present Franz Schubert’s “Fantasy in F minor, D.940,” Claude Debussy’s “Petit Suite,” Maurice Ravel’s “Ma mère l’oye” and Astor Piazzolla’s “Libertango.”

“Schubert’s famous ‘Fantasy’ is really a four-movement sonata played without interruptions,” La Manna said. “It is a masterwork, encompassing many emotions: melancholy, grandiose tragedy, playful dance. Debussy wrote his delightful ‘Petite Suite’ when he was still a young man trying to find his style, his way of writing. The several sections feature diverse dance rhythms and moods.”

Describing the final two pieces, La Manna said, “Ravel’s ‘Ma mère l’oye’ is a musical description of several tales, some by Perrault, and one by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont: ‘The Beauty and the Beast.’ It was composed for two children and subtitled “Cinq pièces enfantines”—five children’s pieces. Piazzolla composed his ‘Libertango’ in 1974, incorporating both jazz and classical elements.”

Tickets for the duo piano concert are $8 ($5 for SUNY Oswego students) and are available at all SUNY Oswego box offices, online at tickets.oswego.edu or by calling 315-312-2141. Parking is included in the price of a ticket and is available in the employee and commuter lots adjacent to Sheldon Hall and across Washington Boulevard from it. Patrons with disabilities needing assistance should call 315-312-241 in advance of the performance.

For more information on the Focus on Faculty Series and other fine arts events at SUNY Oswego, visit oswego.edu/arts.