The Pittsburgh Connectiona popular trio performing on flute, harp, viola and pianowill perform at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, at the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center .
The concert, in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (Room 200A), is free and open to the public.
Members of the group include Robert Langevin, principal flute of the New York Philharmonic; Mary Woehr, a a violist and a pianist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; and Anne-Marguerite Michaud, co-principal harpist with the Baltimore Symphony and a former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony.
The program will featureConcerto in B-flatby George Frideric Handel,Fantasy Sonata for Harp and Violaby Arnold Bax,Sonate pour flte alto et harpeby Claude Debussy,Sonate pour flte et harpeby Jean-Michel Damase andConcerto for Flute and Harpby Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Before joining the New York Philharmonic, Langevin held the Jackman Pfouts Principal Flute Chair of the Pittsburgh Symphony and was an adjunct professor at Duquesne University. He previously served as associate principal of the Montreal Symphony for 13 years, playing on more than 30 recordings. He also served on the faculty of the University of Montreal for nine years and is currently on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and Orford International Summer Festival.
As a member of Musica Camerata Montreal and l’Ensemble de la Socitde Musique Contemporaine du Quebec, Langevin premiered many works, including the Canadian premiere of Pierre Boulez’sLe Marteau sans matre.In addition, Langevin has performed as soloist with Quebec’s most distinguished ensembles and has recorded many recitals and chamber music programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
He graduated from the Montreal Conservatory of Music in 1976 with two first prizes, one in flute and the other in chamber music. Not long after, he won the prestigious Prix d’Europe, a national competition open to all instruments with a first prize of a two-year scholarship to study in Europe. This enabled him to work with Aurle Nicolet at the Staatliche Hochschule fr Musik in Freiburg, Germany, where he graduated in 1979. He then went on to study with Maxence Larrieu in Geneva, winning second price at the Budapest International Competition in 1980.
Woehr is a native of Pittsburgh, where both her parents were members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. As a violist, she has played with the London Sinfonia in Canada, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Ballet Orchestra, the Chautauqua Symphony and the new music chamber group Voices of Change. As a pianist, she frequently performs in recital with her orchestral colleagues.
She received her bachelor’s degree in music performance from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Her teachers have included violists Bernard Linden, Francis Tursi and Bruno Giuranna and pianists Patricia Prattis Jennings and Virginia Marks. She has been a member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 1982.
Michaud was born in Rhode Island and by the time she was 10 was performing professionally and making numerous appearances on television and radio in the United States, Canada and Europe. At this time she began to study with Marcel Grandjany, chair of the harp department at The Juilliard School, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in music in 1974. In that same year she was awarded a bronze medal at the International Competition of Musical Performers in Geneva.
She was principal harpist of the Rhode Island Philharmonic from 1982-88 and a member of the New Music Ensemble of Providence, also teaching at Brown University, Providence College and Rhode Island College. She was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1988 to 2003 before joining the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
She has been a soloist with many American orchestras and has recorded extensively for the GIA label. She has two solo harp recordings on the Summit Record label:A Touch of Elegance, Harpworks of Marcel GrandjanyandThe Children’s Hour: Harpworks for the Imagination.She has also collaborated with numerous musicians on other recording projects.
For more information about the concert, call the College of Creative Arts at (304) 293-4841 ext. 3108.