Cellist Paul Christopher of Northwestern State University will be joined by keyboard faculty members Chialing Hsieh, Daniel Ley and John Price in a program of French music on Tuesday, August 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. Those attending are asked to follow university regulations and to wear a mask. A livestream will be available at capa.nsula.edu/livestream.
Christopher will play Gabriel Faure’s “Elégie,” “Romance in A Minor” and “Sérénade” accompanied by Price and “Sonata in D major for cello and piano” by Vincent D’Indy accompanied by Hsieh. He will also play Darius Milhaud’s “Sonata for Cello and Piano” accompanied by Ley.
Christopher is an associate professor of music theory and low strings at Northwestern State. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Panamá. He has also performed guest artist recitals in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and South Korea. He has presented and performed at conferences in Alabama, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Ohio.
Christopher’s articles have been published in the Jacques Offenbach Society Newsletter, Strings, American String Teacher and Bass World. He has on appeared numerous recordings as a former member of the Nashville String Machine. In addition, Christopher has recorded music by contemporary composers Don Freund, Dinos Constantinides and Mark Lee, as well as seven recordings devoted to the cello music of Jacques Offenbach.
Hailed as a “brilliant pianist” (Fanfare), Hsieh has performed recitals in Europe, Asia, and throughout the United States and has been a featured pianist on seven CD’s for the Centaur, Enharmonic, and Ballpark record labels. Hsieh is an assistant professor of collaborative piano at Northwestern State and has given masterclasses throughout the United States and abroad and served as a judge and adjudicator for competitions and events.
A sought-after collaborative pianist, Hsieh has performed with members of the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minnesota, and Memphis. She has performed with the faculty of Julliard, Northwestern University, New England Conservatory, the University of Cincinnati and Arizona State University.
Ley is a music director, pianist, and conductor based in Shreveport. He has worked as music director for over 75 professional, academic, and amateur music theatre productions. Daniel works as a pianist at Northwestern State. He has a B.M. in piano performance from Centenary College of Louisiana and a M.M. from Northwestern State University.
Price is an assistant professor of piano and piano pedagogy at Northwestern State. He received his doctorate in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma and has previously been a faculty member at Utah State University and Oklahoma City University.
Price has worked as a staff accompanist at the Heifetz International Music Institute and the University of Oklahoma Summer String Academy. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed in masterclasses for artists such as Paul Katz, Joseph Alessi, Andrés Cárdenes and Marilyn Horne. He served three years as an opera rehearsal pianist for OU Opera where he performed the complete orchestral reductions of “Gianni Schicchi,” “Suor Angelica, Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Don Pasquale,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Rodelinda,” “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle” and “L’enfant et les sortiléges.” He has also worked as a rehearsal pianist for Tulsa Opera’s productions of “The Little Prince,” “Don Giovanni” and “Carmen.”
Price has won prizes at the Utah State University Piano Festival, the Donna Turner Smith Piano Competition and been an Artist-in-Residence at the Baltimore Piano Festival. He is a two-time winner of the Utah State University Concerto Competition and as a result performed concerti of Liszt and Tchaikovsky with the USU Symphony Orchestra. During his studies, he had the opportunity to perform as a soloist for artists such as Stephen Hough, Robert McDonald, Norman Krieger and Jerome Lowenthal.
For more information call (318) 357-5802.
