Program
Romanian Folk Dances Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
I. Stick Dance
II. Sash Dance
IV. Dance from Buscum
Sonata No 2. in E-flat, BWV 1031 J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
II. Siciliano
Fantasie op. 124 Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Clarianne Duo
Aja Majkrzak, violin
Hannah Palmquist Hite, harp
Wie Melodien zieht es mir Johannes Brahms (1933-1897)
Schwanengesang Franz Schubert (1787-1828)
Ständchen
D’une Prison Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
Mignonne Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944)
How Close I’d Love to Be Isaac Lovdahl (b. 1993)
Kristina Rodel Sorum, mezzo soprano
Mary Goetz, piano
Fantasia in C minor, K. 475 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Hyperbolae Shulamit Ran (b. 1949)
Prelude in B major, Op 28, No 11 Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Sara Wandrei Langmead, piano
Growing up a Suzuki student, Aja Majkrzak is a passionate teacher of the method and loves learning and sharing ideas with other teachers. She currently teaches at the Saint Paul Conservatory of Music. Under the tutelage of Mark Bjork, she received her Bachelor's of Music from the University of Minnesota in 2011, and her Master's of Music from Louisiana State University in 2013, studying with Espen Lilleslatten. Since then she has performed with many regional orchestras and is currently principal second violin with the Buffalo Community Orchestra. Her orchestral experiences include sharing the stage with performers like Leila Josefowicz, Audra McDonald, and Gil Shaham. June 2015 brought Aja to Havana, Cuba with Charanga Tropical, to become the first band from the United States to participate in the International Danzon Festival. In an effort to make classical music more fun and approachable, Aja started a podcast called Pour Me A Mozart. The show combines her bartending background with her passion for sharing classical music. Pour Me A Mozart is available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play. If she is not making music you can find Aja with her two cats, Dexter and Cindy Lou Who, and cooking vegetarian and vegan meals.
Dr. Hannah Palmquist Hite is a native of Tucson, AZ. She began her harp studies at the age of 6 with Patricia Harris of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Hannah earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music History, Theory, and Criticism from the University of Arizona in 2012. While a student there, she was a member of touring harp ensemble HarpFusion, with whom she toured Brazil and China. As a Medici Scholar at U of A, Hannah traveled to London to study chamber works with faculty of the Royal College of Music at the British Isles Music Festival. Hannah earned her Master of Music in Harp Performance at the University of Minnesota in 2017 under the tutelage of Kathy Kienzle and defended her doctoral thesis on Russian Harp Technique in July 2020, earning her Doctor of Musical Arts. She has been a featured soloist with UMN Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Pops Orchestra, and Civic Orchestra of Tucson. Her passions include chamber music, teaching, and premiering new works. When she is not making music, you can find Hannah spending time with her husband and daughter, watching cooking shows, and taking her dog Axel on walks.
Kristina Rodel Sorum, mezzo soprano, is a versatile artist, equally comfortable in art song, choral music, sacred music, and opera. She has held membership in groups such as VocalEssence, The Singers- Minnesota Choral Artists, the Minnesota Chorale, MPLS (imPulse), Twin Cities Fringe Opera, the Twin Cities Early Music Festival, and the Lakes Area Music Festival. She has been heard as a soloist in operas, cantatas, and recitals throughout the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the Czech Republic.
Mary Goetz performs frequently around the Twin Cities as a soloist as well as in collaboration with other Twin Cities artists, and teaches piano at the K&S Conservatory in Woodbury and at her home studio in St. Paul. She is a performing member of Thursday Musical, serves as Program Director for MMTA’s Music Bridges program, and is the South Metro Minneapolis Chair for the National Guild of Piano Teachers. She received performance degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was a student of Howard Karp, and the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano with Patricia Zander and collaborative piano with Margo Garrett. When she is not making or teaching music, Mary enjoys camping, biking and knitting, and also volunteers as a Medicare counselor on the Senior LinkAge Line.
Sara Wandrei Langmead holds DMA and MM degrees from the Peabody Conservatory where she studied piano with Yoheved Kaplinsky for seven years. As a full-tuition Strelow Scholar, she received her BM degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Sara made her orchestral debut at age 16, won first prizes in the Schubert Club and UW-Madison Concerto competitions at the collegiate level, and was awarded full scholarship to study with Gyorgy Sebok for two summers at the Banff Centre. In 1997, she won first prize at the international Sigma Alpha Iota Competition.
Dr. Langmead held piano faculty positions at St. Mary’s College-MD, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia College-MO, and at Mercyhurst University-PA, where she was Assistant Professor of Piano. After the birth of her second daughter, Dr. Langmead left her tenure-track position in academia in 2004. Over the next fourteen years, she raised four daughters and built a successful private piano studio in Minnesota. In 2018, Dr. Langmead returned to the concert stage in New Jersey, Texas, and Minnesota as a soloist and in partnership with Dr. Rossitza Goza, concertmaster of the Tulsa Symphony.
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