Julie McKinstry, voice; Dan Sato, piano

CMM welcomes soprano Julie McKinstry with pianist Dan Sato to the Wednesday Recital Series!

Program:

Originally from the central Pennsylvania area, Julia McKinstry earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in opera performance from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.  She moved to Germany and was engaged by the Regensburg Städtische Bühnen, appearing in Traviata, Viva la Mama, Zigeunerbaron, and many other works.  She has performed such diverse roles as Cunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, by Donizetti, and Madame Weltschmerz in Mozart’s Impressario, as well as performing in Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Mozart’s C Minor Mass.  Ms. McKinstry moved to the central New York area in 2004, and is currently an Adjunct Voice Instructor at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music.

Through a single-minded obsession over the piano literature, Dan Sato has steadily become a concert artist, scholar, educator, and chamber musician in high demand. His passion for the repertoire can be seen in his eclectic programs encompassing the canon, neglected and forgotten works, and freshly born compositions that are rendered with “exuberant spontaneity, deep conviction, and serious compositional understanding.”  Dr. Dan’s performances have been rewarded with ovations at the New Orleans Piano Institute, Brevard Music Center, Chautauqua Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, Southeast Asia Music Festival, Garth Newel Music Center, and Taconic Music’s inaugural summer festival. Other appearances include the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition and the Quartet Program as an official collaborative pianist, and he recently assumed the role of studio pianist for Laura Bossert and Terry King at Syracuse University.  In the coming seasons, Dan will present all twenty-seven Chopin Etudes in concert in the US and Europe as an homage to his mentor, Dr. Frank Heneghan, as well as a program consisting of the two books of Brahms-Paganini Variations, the complete Etudes-tableaux, Op. 39 by Rachmaninoff, and an assortment of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes. Following the world premiere of Vincenzo Maltempo’s solo piano transcription of Ravel’s Second Suite from Daphnis et Chloé, he is currently accumulating other obscure transcriptions of the orchestral repertoire to satisfy his fantasies of being a one-man-band.