DUO Stephanie & Saar
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Recently praised by the New York Times for their “beautifully understated playing”, the collaboration of pianists Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia in both piano four-hand and two-piano repertoire brings them to New York’s cutting-edge Le Poisson Rouge, the Czech Republic’s Pilsen Radio Symphony Orchestra performing Bohuslav Martinu’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, engagement with Cultural Center of Chicago's Dame Myra Hess series, and a live radio interview and performance on WNYC’s Soundcheck with John Schaefer.
This season DUO Stephanie and Saar presents a three-concert residency for Composers Collaborative at Cornelia Street Café in NYC. They will also be appearing on In the Gardens of Spain, a live WQXR broadcast concert from New York City’s Cervantes Institute, followed by a live broadcast concert from Chicago on WFMT presented by PianoForte Foundation. Highlights from the 2008-9 season include concerts with the Regensdorf Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland) performing Mozart and Bach Concertos for Two Pianos and reengagements at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Catonsville Presbyterian Concert Series and the Dame Myra Hess series.
While pursuing Graduate Performance Diplomas at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, the couple was inspired by Leon Fleisher to explore the string quartets of Beethoven in a duo piano setting. From that motivation came several concert appearances of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op.18 No.6 and a mentorship by Mr. Fleisher who was joined in his efforts by both Julian Martin and Boris Slutsky, faculty members at the Juilliard School and Peabody Institute respectively.
In order to focus on developing a duo repertoire, Stephanie and Saar completed two Performing Artist Residencies at the Banff Centre in Canada in 2005 and 2006 where they performed as well as recorded music by Debussy, Mozart, Brahms, Messiaen, Schubert, Stravinsky and more. Selections from these performances were chosen for broadcast on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase in New York.
Interested in programming a wide variety of music, DUO has been exploring a variety of music from Guillame de Machaut to György Kurtág, Messiaen’s monumental Visions de l’Amen, George Crumb's Celestial Mechanics, as well as their own four-hand transcriptions of solo recordings of the jazz pianist Bill Evans. Deeply committed to playing new music, DUO has and will premiere works by Hywel Davies, Michael Harrison, Philippe Bodin, Matt van Brink, Jay Anthony Gach, Paul Hefner, Dana Richardson, Henry Martin and Joel Mandelbaum.
DUO have also assembled and presented special programs of music and letter readings. These include Intimate Letters – the Piano Music of Leos Janácek and A Life in Letters – Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
In conjunction with their performing careers, both Stephanie and Saar are currently faculty members at Concordia College’s Conservatory of Music in Bronxville, New York and Kean University in Union, New Jersey. They reside in Forest Hills - Queens, NYC.
This season DUO Stephanie and Saar presents a three-concert residency for Composers Collaborative at Cornelia Street Café in NYC. They will also be appearing on In the Gardens of Spain, a live WQXR broadcast concert from New York City’s Cervantes Institute, followed by a live broadcast concert from Chicago on WFMT presented by PianoForte Foundation. Highlights from the 2008-9 season include concerts with the Regensdorf Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland) performing Mozart and Bach Concertos for Two Pianos and reengagements at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Catonsville Presbyterian Concert Series and the Dame Myra Hess series.
While pursuing Graduate Performance Diplomas at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, the couple was inspired by Leon Fleisher to explore the string quartets of Beethoven in a duo piano setting. From that motivation came several concert appearances of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op.18 No.6 and a mentorship by Mr. Fleisher who was joined in his efforts by both Julian Martin and Boris Slutsky, faculty members at the Juilliard School and Peabody Institute respectively.
In order to focus on developing a duo repertoire, Stephanie and Saar completed two Performing Artist Residencies at the Banff Centre in Canada in 2005 and 2006 where they performed as well as recorded music by Debussy, Mozart, Brahms, Messiaen, Schubert, Stravinsky and more. Selections from these performances were chosen for broadcast on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase in New York.
Interested in programming a wide variety of music, DUO has been exploring a variety of music from Guillame de Machaut to György Kurtág, Messiaen’s monumental Visions de l’Amen, George Crumb's Celestial Mechanics, as well as their own four-hand transcriptions of solo recordings of the jazz pianist Bill Evans. Deeply committed to playing new music, DUO has and will premiere works by Hywel Davies, Michael Harrison, Philippe Bodin, Matt van Brink, Jay Anthony Gach, Paul Hefner, Dana Richardson, Henry Martin and Joel Mandelbaum.
DUO have also assembled and presented special programs of music and letter readings. These include Intimate Letters – the Piano Music of Leos Janácek and A Life in Letters – Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
In conjunction with their performing careers, both Stephanie and Saar are currently faculty members at Concordia College’s Conservatory of Music in Bronxville, New York and Kean University in Union, New Jersey. They reside in Forest Hills - Queens, NYC.