originally published: 03/16/2019



(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The 2018-2019 Westminster Conservatory Faculty Recital Series continues with a performance titled “An die Musik” on Sunday, March 24 at 3:00pm in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, N.J. Performers include Katherine McClure, flute; Sandra Olson, flute; Elem Eley, baritone; Larissa Korkina, piano; Esma Pasic-Filipovic, piano and Vladimir Valjarevic, piano.

The program includes Poulenc’s “Sonate pour flûte et piano, FP 164;” Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata in C Major No. 21, Op. 53 ‘Waldstein’;” a transcription of Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre for two pianos; Albert Franz Doppler’s “Andante and Rondo Op. 25” for two flutes and piano, and selections from Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances. The program will also feature Schubert lieder, including “An den Mond” and “An die Musik.” The concert is titled for the seconda song, which may be considered a “hymn of devotion for the world’s lovers of music.” This theme unifies the program, bringing together these various pieces which are all mainstays of the repertoire.

Elem Eley creatively blends his active performing career with an extensive teaching life as professor of voice. His discography includes nine CDs, among them the highly-acclaimed solo album with pianist JJ Penna, Drifts and Shadows: American Song for the New Millennium. The duo’s lieder recording, Der Geist spricht/ The Spirit Speaks was praised for its “…deeply expressive, moving performances of some of the most awesome examples of German lieder we are likely to encounter on record.” Mr. Eley is frequently heard in recital and in master classes, and has performed in concert and opera in New York’s most prominent venues, throughout the United States and in Europe.

Larissa Korkina has enjoyed a successful career as a recitalist, chamber musician and coach. She has collaborated with many opera singers in recitals, as well as in opera productions, including Maria Guleghina of the Metropolitan Opera, Perry Ward, Hanli Stapela and others. She received awards as the best accompanist in three national competitions in Russia. A resident of the Princeton area, she has performed numerous solo, chamber and accompanying concerts in the tristate area, including special functions at the Garden State Arts Center, McCarter Theatre and Richardson Auditorium.

Katherine McClure began her professional career in Paris, France, and she is currently on the faculties of Westminster Conservatory and the Lawrenceville School and maintains a private studio in Kingston, N.J. An active chamber and orchestral player, Ms. McClure has appeared in Carnegie Hall as principal flutist of the Edison Symphony, and she is a tenured member of the Riverside Symphonia and the Delaware Valley Philharmonic.

The article continues after this ad







A native of Naperville, Ill., Sandy Olson has been a flute teacher and director of the summer flute camp at Westminster Conservatory, as well as a middle school music teacher at Crossroads North Middle School for the past 20 years. In addition, she runs the flute ensemble for the Youth Orchestra of Central N.J. Ms. Olson has performed at National Flute Association’s flute conventions with Wye’s Guys Flute Quintet and with orchestras throughout Illinois and Florida.

Pianist Esma Pasic-Filipovic has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe and the United States. She was an accompanist at the Music Academy of the University of Sarajevo as well as at the Hochschule fur Darstellende Kunst in Vienna. Since 1998 she been a member of the piano faculty of the Westminster Conservatory and since 2016 she has been a staff accompanist at Westminster Choir College. Her students have won numerous prizes at regional and international competitions. She is also director for the Honors Music Program, the prep division program at Westminster Conservatory.

Praised by Fanfare magazine for his “caressing legato,” “silk-on-velvet seductiveness” and by Strad magazine as “an outstandingly responsive partner and superb tonalist,” pianist Vladimir Valjarevic has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, the United States and the Far East. He has recorded for Labor Records, Romeo Records, Blue Griffin, Centaur Records and MSR Classics. Mr. Valjarevic is on the piano faculty at Mannes School of Music and Rutgers University, and piano pedagogy and literature faculty at Mannes. In the summers, he teaches at the Beijing International Music Festival and Academy and Xian Music Festival in China, Round Top inTexas and the International Institute for Young Musicians in Kansas.

Westminster Choir College of Rider University is located at 101 Walnut Lane in Princeton. To learn more about this recital and other Westminster performances, please go to www.rider.edu/arts.