Shirley Yoo & Matthieu Fortin:
A Four hand piano recital
featuring music by Barber, Ravel, Violet Archer and Kurtag

Tickets: $15 general / $8 students

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

The Washington Post declared Shirley Yoo a pianist with “extraordinary sensitivity and technical skill.” Highlights of concerts abroad include performances at Tata Theatre, Mumbai; Arts Center, Seoul; Penderecki Festival, Banff; Societa Filarmonica, Trento; and Steinway Hall, London. Her top prize winnings include such competitions as the Pennsylvania Federation of Music Clubs, the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the Kosciuszko Foundation’s National Chopin Competition.

In addition to her solo performances, Yoo is passionate about chamber music and has performed in several chamber ensembles across the mid-Atlantic region. Live and recorded performances of both solo and chamber have been broadcast on WQED, Pittsburgh and WQLN, Erie. She was a founding member of the Annapolis Chamber Players, an ensemble of winds, strings and two pianos. Recently, she has collaborated with members of So Percussion performing contemporary repertoire for two pianos and percussion. Yoo is a founding core member of League of the Unsound Sound (LotUS), a chamber group dedicated to performing contemporary and experimental music. Past chamber music studies include coachings with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Shanghai, and Tokyo String Quartets. She has participated in master classes with Marc Durand, Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, and Seymour Lipkin. Yoo won a Presser Award to work with Noretta Conci-Leech in London, England; more recently, she was awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Grant.

Yoo’s primary teachers include Raymond Hanson, Ann Koscielny, Conci-Leech, and Ellen Mack. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and received her Master of Music degree on a fellowship with highest honors at the University of Maryland. After attending the Royal Academy of Music in London, UK, she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Peabody Institute. For five years, Yoo was a faculty member in the Theory Department at Peabody. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Piano at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. At the college, she serves as the coordinator of the keyboard area and is also artist-in-residence as the pianist of the D’Angelo Trio.

Praised for his versatility, pianist Matthieu Fortin plays both classical and contemporary repertoires with style. From Beethoven to Boulez, Chopin to Ravel, he plays the great works of the past and present with brilliance and sensitivity and has already been recognized with several important prizes. In both 2002 and 2005, he was awarded the Prix du Lieutenant-Gouverneur du Québec. In 2004, he won the Joseph Rouleau Award from the Montreal International Music Competition, and in 2005 he won the CBC-Galaxy Rising Star award. Matthieu Fortin has also been awarded grants from various organizations such as the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, and the Fonds québecois de recherche sur la société et la culture.



Matthieu Fortin was granted his Doctorate of Music in Performance at l’Université de Montréal in 2007. He then pursued his interest in contemporary music with advanced studies at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal under the supervision of the internationally renowned pianist Louise Bessette. That same year, a grant from the Conseil des arts du Québec allowed him to study in Berlin, Germany with the great French pianist Jacques Rouvier. He has also studied with Jacinthe Couture, Marc Durand and Paul Stewart.

Matthieu Fortin is frequently heard in collaboration with dance projects. In the 2006 Danse-Cité production Projet Roy, Matthieu performed pieces by Chopin on-stage with dancer Ken Roy. This led to a further collaboration with choreographer Hélène Blackburn and her contemporary dance company Cas Public, with whom he toured extensively. Interested in working with composers of his generation, he recently commissioned and premiered one work by the young Quebecois composer Julien Bilodeau. In a wider perspective, Matthieu has been heard as orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in Europe and Canada, including appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, the Choeur Classique Vaudreuil-Soulanges and at the Festival international de Lanaudière and the Festival International du Domaine Forget.

Also dedicating a part of his time to teaching, Matthieu Fortin teaches piano at the Collège Notre-Dame in Montreal and is a member of the Coopérative des professeurs de musique de Montréal.