Katherine Gradojevich Manker (left) with Brian Manker (right)
On Sunday, November 12 at 3 p.m., Cellist Brian Manker, Violinist Katherine Gradojevich Manker, and Pianist Wei-Tei Huang will perform chamber music at the Phelps Mansion Museum on 191 Court Street in Binghamton.
Admission
Admission is free. Donations are greatly appreciated. For more information, please call (607) 722-4873 or email us at info@phelpsmansion.org.
Brian Manker
Solo Cellist of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 1999, Brian Manker enjoys a diverse and varied musical career as a performer and teacher. In addition to being a frequent concerto soloist with the OSM, Mr. Manker is a member of the award winning New Orford String Quartet.
Formerly the co-director of Festival Alexandria, he can be heard on his 2010 recording of the complete Bach Cello Suites on STORKCLASSICS, as well as numerous recordings of chamber music and with the OSM. Mr. Manker served on the jury of the prestigious and historic Prague Spring International Cello Competition in 2006.
Currently on the faculty of McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, in 2007, Mr. Manker launched the Beethoven Project and founded the Adorno Quartet, which aimed to perform all the quartets of Beethoven in their proper context, the private salon. Brian Manker plays on a cello made by Pietro Guarneri of Venice in 1729 and a bow made by Francois Pecatte, graciously loaned by the Canimex Foundation, or a cello made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in 2005.
Katherine Gradojevich Manker
Katherine Gradojevich Manker spent seven seasons as Associate Concertmaster with the North Carolina Symphony before moving to Montréal, Canada. Currently, she is teaching for the McGill Music Conservatory and is an active freelancer, performing and touring frequently with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.
As a member of the Adorno Quartet, Ms Manker participated in the Beethoven Project performing the complete cycle of the Beethoven String Quartets numerous times.
Ms. Manker spent several years in Southern California regularly performing with the Santa Barbara Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, Opera Pacific, and freelance work in the motion picture, television, and recording industries.
She is a graduate of The Cleveland Institute of Music and continued her violin studies at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles as a scholarship student of Robert Lipsett.
Ms. Manker has taught for the Preparatory Department of The Cleveland Institute of Music, Colburn School of Performing Arts, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the Artistic Coordinator for Festival Alexandria (Ontario, Canada) from 2007-2010. She plays on a violin made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in 2013.
Wei-Tang Huang
Wei-Tang Huang moved to the U.S. from Taipei, Taiwan, at age 13 to further his musical education. Huang first studied with Jerry Davidson in Kent, Ohio, and was later a student in the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Olga Radosavljevich. He then studied piano performance with Sara Laimon at Yale University while pursuing a degree in Computer Science.
Since arriving in Montreal in 2002, he has performed privately at various seniors’ residences and long-term care facilities and collaborated publicly with various musician friends and students.
Huang is currently exploring his interest in chamber music performance, piano accompaniment, and musical composition. Huang draws inspiration from collaborations with classical musicians, singers, songwriters, and other artistic and creative friends.
While Huang has worked as an IT systems architect, studied law, served tea, and explored snack-making at his friend’s tea shop, music has always been the one thread connecting the eclectic dots of his sporadically random life. He lives in Montreal with his loyally soporific cat Taro.
Program
- Piano Trio No.4, Op.90-Dvořák, Antonín
- Piano Trio, Op.15-Smetana, Bedřich
- and much more
This concert will be dedicated to Harold H. Manker. The family would be happy to see friends there and to greet them at an after-concert reception at 5:15 p.m. The concert will be a celebration of a kindly life well-lived, a life of profound dedication to work, music, family, and quietly helping others.
Baritone Timothy LeFebvre, pianist Michael Salmirs and pianist John Covelli will also contribute to this special performance in honor of Harold.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Phelps Mansion Museum.
This program is made possible in part by a grant from the United Cultural Fund, a program of the Broome County Arts Council, and with public funds from the Chenango Art’s Council’s Decentralization Program, a re-grant program of the NYS Council on the Arts, with support from Governor Cuomo and the NYS Legislature. Additional support for Broome County provided by the Stewart W. & Willma C. Hoyt Foundation.
