RCMS Concert ‘Images in Sound’

The Rochester Chamber Music Society season continues with a kick-off concert for the Green Mountain Suzuki Institute Sunday, July 6 at 4 p.m. at the Rochester High School Auditorium. The afternoon concert will feature two local pianists, Marilyn Taggart and Cynthia Huard, with cellist, Robert Penny, a frequent performer in the RCMS summer series.

Marilyn Taggart, a resident of Stockbridge, trained as a concert pianist at Oberlin College Conservatory and at Converse College, where she studied with Ozan Marsh and graduated with a "Distinction in Performance" award. She earned her master’s degree at Catholic University, where she studied with Thomas Mastroianni.

A Suzuki piano teacher since 1978, she has taught master classes throughout the United States and has published articles in American Suzuki Journal, and is a contributor to the book "Teaching Suzuki Piano: Ten Teachers’ Viewpoints." Taggart’s students have won numerous awards.

In addition to her career as an educator, as a performer she has presented a wide range of solo repertoire, as well as collaborating with singers and instrumentalists in vocal and chamber music performances.

Huard has appeared in recital as a pianist and harpsichordist throughout the United States and Europe. She has performed with the Lark Quartet, cellist Nathaniel Rosen, and with chamber players of several orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, National Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Utah Symphony, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. She has been a featured soloist at the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and at the Aston Magna Early Music Festival, among others.

She frequently performs with renowned vocalists, and has been heard on National Public Radio with the vocal ensemble "Counterpoint," with whom she has recorded a CD of South American Music. Most recently she has been presenting contemporary music, including a Vermont premiere of a piece by nationally recognized composer Nico Muhly, commissioned works by Vermont composers Erik Nielsen and T.L. Read, and a piano solo by Tristan Axelrod.

Huard spent three years as a fellowship student in Austria, studying piano and early keyboards and earning degrees in Piano Performance and Harpsichord Performance as well as Music Theory. At Indiana University, she earned advanced degrees in piano and harpsichord as well as studying modern chamber music with members of the Borodin Trio. She is currently an affiliate artist at Middlebury College.

Penny was born in Singapore, grew up in Australia, and studied at Indiana University. He is a software developer and an active musician in the Boston area folk dance community. He performs regularly at the New England Folk Festival and plays for English country dances around Boston as a member of the Shandy Hall String Quartet.

Formerly a frequent performer in chamber music recitals in the Boston area, Penny has played on WGBH’s "Morning Pro Musica" program as a member of the Tamarak Piano Trio and has played with many Eastern Massachusetts groups.

The Sunday program will include duo pianists Huard and Taggart performing Mozart’s Sonata in D major and Debussy’s Petite Suite, and cellist Penny presenting Schumann’s Pieces in a Folk Style, Op. 102, as well as a suite of Cape Breton fiddle tunes arranged for cello and piano, and Ravel’s "Jeux d’Eau" piano solo.

For more information call 767-9234.

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