Program
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Sonata Op. 90
Presto alla tedesca from Sonata, Op. 79
Nikolai Kapustin
Sonatina, Op. 100
Frederic Chopin
Fantasie-Impromptu, Op. 66
Camille Saint-Saens
The Swan
Samuel Barber
Nocturne, Op. 33
Frederic Chopin
A-flat Ballade, Op. 38
INTERMISSION
Lee Hoiby
I Was There: 5 Songs of Walt Whitman, Op. 49
Claude Debussy
Reflets dans l’eau
Franz Liszt
La Campanella
Johannes Brahms
Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118 No. 2
William Bolcom
A Serpent’s Kiss
Sergei Prokofiev
Sonata No. 3
David Small, baritone
Katherine Race, piano
Members of the Susan Groves piano studio: Brayden Cheang, Matthew Chien, Kellen Cao, Alissa Shen, Alton Shen, Katelyn Yu, Kevin Yu, Sarah Qi
Biography
An active pianist and private piano teacher in Austin for over 30 years, Susan Groves comes from a long line of professional pianists, including her late father, University of Texas piano professor William Race, her mother Katherine Race, who continues to teach and perform, as well as an aunt, uncle, grandmother and great-grandfather. Susan Groves' first principal piano teacher was Jean Mainous in Denton, Texas, followed by various teachers in Austin from age 11-17, including UT professor Nancy Garrett. She was the recipient of numerous prizes during her pre-college years, performing in Carnegie Recital Hall at age 11 and and with the Amarillo and Austin Symphonies at age 12. Among other awards, she was the Texas and Southwest winner of the Baldwin Junior Keyboard Award at age 14.
College studies began at the University of Toronto with Anton Kuerti, followed by the University of Texas at Austin to study with Danielle Martin, her father, William Race, and Nancy Garrett, earning a BM, MM and DMA in Piano Performance. Summer study included working with Jerome Lowenthal at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Jack Radunsky in Wisconsin, and John Perry at UT-Austin. Dr. Groves won first place in the International Piano Recording Competition, was a finalist in the National Arts and Letters' Jeunesse Musicale Competition and the winner of the UT Mozart Piano Concerto Competition, subsequently performing with the UT Symphony. From 1994-98, Susan Groves was the Director of Austin's Mostly Music Marathon, a 12-hour annual AIDS benefit featuring local musicians and other performers. Following the completion of her DMA degree in 1991, Dr. Groves and her father formed the Race-Groves Piano Duo, performing concerts throughout the United States and in China until his death in 1999. Since then, she has given numerous performances in Austin and around Texas.
Dr. Groves has maintained an award-winning private piano studio in Austin for many years and was voted Pre-Collegiate Teacher of the Year in 1992 and 2006. As a devoted participant in the PianoTexas International Festival-Institute since 2011, Susan Groves was selected to perform as soloist with the Ft. Worth Symphony in 2014. Her students have won many important competitions, including 1st place in the Chopin International Piano Competition in Corpus Christi, the TMTA Performance Contest, Austin Symphony Youth Auditions, Pearl Amster Concerto Contest, Baylor Piano Competition, and Texas State Piano Solo Competition, as well as a $25,000 Davidson Fellowship. They have attended the Aspen Summer Institute, been featured on the radio show From the Top , and performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Plano Symphony, Austin Symphony and Austin Civic Orchestra. In addition, her students have gone on to pursue piano degrees at Juilliard, Eastman, University of Texas and the Baylor School of Music.