Sunderman + Cordery Concert March 5, 2020

Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church

Middlebury, Vermont

Thursday, March 5, 2020, 12:15 – 1PM

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The Sonata in D Major by George Frideric Handel is one in a collection of six written for violin and keyboard (harpsichord).  While musicologists often question if Handel wrote most of these sonatas, the D Major is an authentic Handel.  His manuscript for the sonata dating from around 1750 still survives today.

Although Respighi (1879-1936), born in Bologna, is today best known for his large-scale orchestral works like Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, he also composed much for piano. His 6 Pieces for Piano were published between 1903 and 1905, well before most of his major works. The Notturno is the third in the set, influenced clearly by Debussy but with a noticeably more modern tonal language.

Violinist Maud Powell joined her friend, Boston-based composer and pianist Amy Beach to premier Beach’s composition Romance, Op 23 at the first Women’s Musical Congress of the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893.  The audience responded in thunderous applause, and the performance repeated. During the encore, Powell’s music blew off her music stand.

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Gareth Cordery has returned from a semester abroad at Oxford University and is now completing his senior year as a music and history major at Middlebury College. He studies piano under Prof. Diana Fanning and has worked with Dr. Mei-Hsuan Huang at Iowa State University and Dr. Tammie Walker at Western Illinois University. He maintains a busy performance schedule at Middlebury, playing with the college orchestra and in various ensembles, as well as giving solo performances.

Gareth has performed as a guest artist with the Bemidji (MN) Symphony Orchestra, the Bismarck-Mandan (ND) Symphony Orchestra, the Champlain Philharmonic, and the Monmouth College (IL) Chamber Orchestra. In November 2019, Gareth premiered Jack DeBouter’s Piano Concerto #1 with the Middlebury College Orchestra. He has attended summer camps at prestigious music schools, including Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music, and has performed in chamber groups across the United States.

He plans to attend graduate school to pursue a career in historical musicology, having finished his honors thesis on classical music at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Born in Galesburg, Illinois, he currently lives in Ames, Iowa.

Emily Sunderman began her music studies at the Hartford Conservatory at age three with Suzuki Violin visionary Barbara Embser. Pre-professional violin technique and orchestra studies were at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, CT, and chamber music at Point CounterPoint, Lucerne, and Apple Hill. After earning her Bachelor’s Degree at Hampshire College, in Amherst, MA, she started what was to become a 25-year professional career as a business and technology analyst for corporations, including Citibank, Investors Bank, and Trust and United Business Media. Throughout her corporate career, she maintained her study and practice of violin and chamber music. Her primary teacher was Arturo Delmoni, concertmaster of the New York City Ballet. Since 2014, Emily has pursued an artistic career in violin performance and pedagogy.

Emily Sunderman teaches violin lessons for beginning-advanced players, cello lessons for beginning-intermediate players, and Suzuki Violin Group Class at the Middlebury Community Music Center. In the summers she directs Camp Adagio Chamber Music Camp for youth and teens, and the Middlebury Chamber Music Festival, and conducts the all-ages Summer String Orchestra for intermediate and advanced players. In addition to a busy performance schedule, teaching, and practicing music, Emily is co-owner with her husband Michael Lee of Twig Farm, an artisan cheese company, an avid yogi and tennis player, and mom to their teenage son, Carter.