This afternoon, pianist Duncan Cumming will present this year's second Teatime Concert in Studzinski Recital Hall's Kanbar Auditorium at 4 p.m., with refreshments provided by the Association of Bowdoin Friends.
Cumming's program will include works by Claude Debussy, Carl Maria von Weber, William Matthews, and Frédéric Chopin. Known for his innovative yet carefully constructed programs, Cumming has chosen pieces ranging over two centuries' worth of musical styles for today's recital.
Cumming will perform two preludes out of a set of eight by Matthews, a contemporary composer who teaches at Bates College. While the other pieces in the program come from the Romantic and Modern periods, Matthews' pieces were written within the last two years. .
"Each of them explores different compositional and pianistic techniques," Matthews said. "The styles range from swing stride to dissonant modernist. This range of styles within one set of short pieces reflects my catholic interest in every kind of music and my sense that we are composing in a post-historical cultural environment."
Cumming's performance will be the Maine premier of the preludes.
A native of Maine, Cumming was born on Presque Isle and grew up in Wiscasset. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors from Bates, where he studied with Frank Glazer, with whom he frequently collaborates. After graduation, Cumming received a full scholarship to study at the European Mozart Academy in Prague. He received a Masters in Music from the New England Conservatory and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University.
An extensive performer, Cumming has appeared as a recitalist and soloist both in America and in Europe, at prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Merkin Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York City, and the Wallenstein Palace in Prague. He is also an avid chamber musician and is a member of the Capital Piano Trio, an ensemble-in-residence at the University of Albany, with his wife, violinist Hilary Cumming, and the Turkish cellist S?len Dikener. Cumming has recorded works by Johannes Brahms, &EACUTErik Satie, Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin, and Michael Gandolfi.
Cumming holds a faculty position at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Previously, he taught at Phillips Academy Andover from 1994 to 2006.
The next Teatime Concert will feature the pianist Joyce Moulton, a member of the applied music faculty at Bowdoin, on November 2, 2007.