Middlebury College Orchestra Performance - March 11, 2010

On March 11 Carol and I enjoyed a very tasty lamb risotto diner with our son, Mark, and Caroline in Shoreham followed by a very strong performance of the Middlebury College Orchestra in the Concert Hall at Mahaney Center for the Arts at Middlebury College.

Mark's youngest son, Gawain playing the viola, practices and performs with this orchestra. On Thursday we were treated to performances by Possini (Overture: The Italian Girl in Algiers), Mozart (Piano Concerto No. 20 in d minor, K.466) and Brahms (Symphony No. 3 in F major Op.90).

The Mozart piece featured a piano solo by a Middlebury freshman, Richard Chen. He is an astounding artist! I know little about music but thoroughly enjoyed his superb piano performance. He is a gifted musician and as you can see from his awards below, has excelled from an early age.

I expect we will hear more about Richard!

Richard Chen (from the concert program):

"Richard P. Chen was born in Taiwan and began his piano studies with his aunt at the age of four. He came to the United States when he was ten years old and attended the Fessenden School, a junior boarding school in Boston, where he began to study with Dr. Nilly Epstein Shilo. Since then, he has won numerous musical awards, including First Place in Massachusetts Music Teachers Association Piano Competition (2007, 2005, 2004, 2002), First place in Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Competition (2008, 2006, 2005, 2004) and First place in New England Piano Teachers Association (NEPT A) High­ School Competition as a high school freshman in 2006. He has also been presented in major concert venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall in New York by the American Fine Arts Festival in 2007 and Steinert's Hall in Boston. He is a student of Diana Fanning and has also studied with Dr. Ivan Citera at the Conservatorio de Zaragoza, Spain. Ricky is currently a freshman at Middlebury College in Vermont and is interested in Arabic, History, Geography and Middle Eastern Studies.

Richard is the winner of the 2010 Alan and Joyce Beucher Concerto Competition that took place in January, 2010. This competition was established by a gift from Susan Beucher Cady and George L. Cady '72, P '08, ' II, in honor of Susan's parents. Alan and Joyce Beucher both had careers in music: Alan was the Master of Ceremonies for Radio City Music Hall where he sang and introduced the Rockettes for more than 20,000 performances and Joyce taught elementary school music and performed choral works on Long Island."