‘American Two-Piano Music’ Oct. 4

Mark Tollefsen, Jae Won Kim highlight Gottschalk, Gershwin and Cage for American Arts Experience

Original sheet music for Louis Moreau Gottschalk's “Ojos Criollos – Danse Cubaine” (1859).

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was among the most popular American composers of the 19th century. The New Orleans native combined European Romanticism with rhythms and melodies drawn from Creole, Caribbean and Latin American influences.

At 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, pianists Mark Tollefsen and Jae Won Kim will perform one of Gottschalk’s most enduring works, “Ojos Criollos – Danse Cubaine” (1859), as part of “American Two-Piano Music” at Washington University in St. Louis’ E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.

Presented by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, the concert is co-sponsored by the American Arts Experience—St. Louis. The annual festival will include dozens of events, ranging from classical and popular music to theatre, dance and the visual arts, at venues throughout the city Oct. 2-18.

“American Two-Piano Music” will open with “Ojos Criollos,” followed by excerpts from Edward MacDowell’s “Moon Pictures” (1885), Amy Beach’s Suite, Op. 104 (1909) and George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”

Also on the program will be works by David Diamond, John Cage, Samuel Barber, William Bolcom, Morton Gould, Joan Tower and George Rochberg. The evening will conclude with Meredith Monk’s “Ellis Island” (2007), Frederic Rzewski’s “A Machine” (2013) and Carter Pann’s “Circumnavigator” (2012).

Pianists Jae Won Kim and Mark Tollefsen

About the musicians

Tollefsen earned a bachelor of arts degree from Washington University, where he studied piano with Seth Carlin, and later earned a master’s and doctorate in music from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Now assistant professor of piano at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wis., Tollefsen has been praised for his “tremendously lucid and effortless performances.” A dedicated advocate for new music, he has performed nearly 100 works by living composers and more than a dozen world or regional premieres.

Kim earned degrees from the Korean National University of Arts and the CCM, where she won the Concerto Competition. Currently assistant professor of piano at Kentucky State University, she has performed widely as a soloist and chamber musician. Recent highlights include collaborations with IMG violinist Chad Hoopes, Metropolitan Opera tenor Rodrick Dixon and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Principal Oboist Dwight Parry. Her recording of selected piano works by Poulenc and Françaix was released in 2013.

“American Two-Piano Music” is free and open to the public. The E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall is located in Washington University’s 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., at the intersection with Delmar Boulevard.

For more information, call 314-935-5566 or email daniels@wustl.edu.