Catskill Mountain Foundation's Academy Of Fortepiano Performance Presents International Salon 9: Beethoven And Freedom Of Speech

Catskill Mountain Foundation's Academy of Fortepiano Performance continues its International Fortepiano Salon Series on March 19, 2022, with the presentation of Salon 9: Beethoven and Freedom of Speech.

Livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube at 3 PM EDT(8PM Europe), the event will be hosted by Academy of Fortepiano Performance faculty Maria Rose and Yi-heng Yang, and feature a talk by Bart van Oort on the role of speech patterns in Classical Performance Practice and a performance of Beethoven's Moonlight sonata by Petra Somlai. Bart and Petra, both professors of fortepiano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague will be guest hosts from their home studio.

Petra Somlai was born in Hungary where she graduated in conducting and piano performance at the Béla Bartók Conservatory (Budapest) and completed her modern piano degree at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest) in 2007. During these years the focus of her interest gradually turned to the authentic interpretation on period instruments. She studied fortepiano and harpsichord with David Ward (England), and later under the direction of Fabio Bonizzoni, Menno van Delft, and Bart van Oort at the Sweelinck Conservatory at Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatory at The Hague where she graduated summa cum laude in 2011. In 2010 Petra Somlai won first prize and the audience award at the International Fortepiano Competition in Bruges (Belgium). In the same year she received the National Junior Prima Primissima Award of Hungary as outstanding young artist. She performs at major international early music festivals such as the Brugge Musica Antiqua Festival; Utrecht Early Music Festival; Haydn Festival Eszterháza; Beethoven Festival Bonn, Budapest Beethoven Festival; Bach Festival Dordrecht; Klara Festival Brussels; AMUZ Festival Antwerp; and Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci; and has given concerts all over Europe and in the USA, Mexico, and Japan. Since 2012 she has performed often as a conducting soloist with various orchestras. Petra Somlai was assistant professor of Early Keyboards on the faculty of University of North Texas from 2013-2015. Since 2018 she has recorded several CDs with solo and chamber music repertory. Currently she is professor of fortepiano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

Bart van Oort studied piano and fortepiano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 1986 he won the first prize and the Audience prize at the International Fortepiano Competition in Brugges, Belgium, and he subsequently studied with Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University (USA), receiving a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Historical Performance Practice in 1993. He has since given lectures and masterclasses and performed all over the world. Since 1997 Van Oort has made over fifty recordings of chamber music and solo repertory, including the 4-CD box set The Art of the Nocturne in the Nineteenth Century, the Complete Haydn Piano Trios (10 CDs) with his ensemble the Van Swieten Society, with Malcolm Bilson and five other fortepianists the Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas and, with four other fortepianists, the Complete Haydn Piano Sonatas. In 2006 Bart van Oort completed a ten-year, 14-CD recording project, the Complete Works for Piano solo and Piano four-hands of Mozart. With The Van Swieten Society he released various cds. Recently appeared French Nocturnes (Vol. 5 of The Nocturne in the Nineteenth Century), Dussek Piano Sonatas, Beethoven Piano Quartets. Bart van Oort teaches fortepiano and Historical Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

Register at catskillmtn.org to receive the link to participate. Watch the virtual salon on Facebook and YouTube on March 19, 2022, at 3PM EDT.

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