Paris has always been an inspirational city for musicians and composers. Enjoy an afternoon piano recital by pianist Louise Costigan-Kerns playing works by Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy and George Gershwin (Wild arrangements).
Frederic Chopin spent much of his life living, performing and composing in Paris. The city was a significant influence on the music of Claude Debussy from his early years at the Paris Conservatoire to the effect of the performances from all over the world at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889. George Gershwin's music was very popular in Paris in the early part of the twentieth century. He lived in Paris for a period of time where he wrote An American in Paris. The jazz that Debussy heard in Paris inspired him to write several piano pieces including Golliwog's Cakewalk. This recital will celebrate the beautiful music of these three composers and illustrate how they influenced each other.
Louise Costigan-Kerns has performed internationally as a concert pianist, accompanist and conductor. Her concerts have been reviewed as "inspiring and technically amazing performances."
Ms. Costigan-Kerns began studying the piano at age two-and-a-half with her mother, Beatrice Costigan, in Blairmore, Alberta, Canada. At age five she gave her first public recital and began competing in Alberta Music Festivals, where she was a consistent winner through high school. After earning her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, Pi Kappa Lambda, from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, she taught on the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School and was the Founding Director of the New England Conservatory Extension Division Opera Studio. Ms. Costigan-Kerns maintained an active performing career in the Boston area as a solo pianist and accompanist. Over the years she was a member of the Opera Department faculty at Boston University, piano faculty at Phillips Exeter Academy and Artist in Residence at Brandeis University.
In the San Francisco Bay Area Ms. Costigan-Kerns has worked for Opera San Jose, Stanford University and the San Francisco Symphony. She is a voice/opera coach and recital pianist at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a senior lecturer in the Musical Arts department at Notre Dame de Namur University. Ms. Costigan-Kerns is active as a recital pianist, opera coach and accompanist for singers and instrumentalists. Her Bay Area performances with orchestras include the Lou Harrison piano concerto with the Redwood Symphony, Liszt piano concerto number 1 with the Winchester Orchestra, Shostakovich second piano concerto with the Palo Alto Philharmonic, Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals with the Santa Cruz Symphony and Beethoven's fourth piano concerto with the New Millennium Chamber orchestra. Ms. Costigan-Kerns recently music-directed Ravel's L’Heure Espagnole and Poulenc's La Voix Humaine for Opera Academy of California in San Francisco with whom she has also performed Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites and Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro.
Ms. Costigan-Kerns' first solo piano CD My Favorite Performances, was released in 2004. Piano With Passion, her second CD, was released in 2007 and Into the Light, her third CD, was released in 2011. All are available on iTunes and cdbaby.com. She can be seen performing Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Harrison on YouTube.