On Sunday afternoon, September 28, as part of its Premier Artists series, Washington College will feature pianists and professors Grace Kim and Hanchien Lee in a light-hearted, family-friendly performance titled Carnivals & Dances: Virtuoso French Music for Two Pianos. Featuring works by composers Camille Saint-Saëns, Francis Poulenc, and Maurice Ravel, the program also will include poetic narration by Timothy Maloney, Professor Emeritus of drama.
The concert will begin at 3:00 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. Tickets for Carnivals & Dances: Virtuoso French Music for Two Pianos are $20 for adults and $15 for senior citizens and non-WC college students. Washington College students and children 18 and under will be admitted free. Concert series tickets (both individual tickets as well as season tickets) can now be purchased at washcoll.edu/concert.
Grace Eun Hae Kim has performed all over the world in venues that include the Kennedy Center, Taipei National Concert Hall, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. One critic described her playing as “hypnotic from the first to the last note,” and the Washington Post praised it as “rich with emotional contrasts.” Prizewinner of numerous competitions, including the William Kappell International Piano Competition, and the Corpus Christi International Competition, she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School and her Doctor of Music Arts degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.
Hanchien Lee began studies with Claude Frank and Eleanor Sokoloff at age 11 and debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra at 16. She has since performed across the world, at venues in North America, Europe and Asia. Frank, who also taught Lee at Yale University, praised her “impeccable technique and sincere musicality with presence and assuredness beyond her years.” After earning her master’s degree and artists’ diploma at Yale, she earned her doctoral degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Recipient of the prestigious Chi-Mei Scholarship and Clara Ascherfeld Award, she won first prize at the Russel C. Wonderlic Piano Competition.
Timothy Maloney will narrate for the pianists’s performance of Saint-Saëns’s whimsical classic, Carnival of the Animals, reading a series of funny rhymes the late Ogden Nash wrote to accompany each movement. Maloney first came to Washington College in 1966, charged with creating a drama department. He retired after 47 years as a beloved teacher and mentor, and was recognized with the Alumni Association’s prestigious Award for Distinguished Teaching.
The Premier Artists lineup is part of the Washington College Concert Series. Now in it’s 63rd year, the Concert Series in recent years has also sponsored the free 12@Hotchkiss concert program, which brings top regional artists for free lunchtime performances on the first Friday of the month. For a full listing of concerts and performances, visit the Concert Series website site at washcoll.edu/concert.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.