BEMIDJI, Minn. – The Department of Music at Bemidji State University will begin its recital season with a faculty piano and violin recital on Sunday, Sept. 7. The recital, featuring Dr. Michelle Laliberte and Dr. Stephen Carlson, will begin at 3 p.m. in the Thompson Recital Hall in Bemidji State’s Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex. Admission is free.

Laliberte and Carlson will perform major works by Beethoven, Brahms and Grieg.

“These three pieces epitomize chamber musicin that both instruments play equal roles,” said Carlson, who will play piano in the recital. “It is easy to understand why musicians and audiences alike can appreciate an intimate medium such as this.”

The duo will also perform several solo violin works, such as “Romance” by Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen, in which the violin, played by Laliberte, will take a dominant role while the piano supports.

Laliberte is an adjunct instructor of music at Bemidji State and teaches at Bemidji’s Headwaters School of Music. She has been a faculty member at Southwest Minnesota State University and the University of Minnesota, Morris, and also taught at the University of Colorado. Laliberte has performed as a solo and chamber musician for 20 years, participating in a variety of symphonies and chamber ensembles including the Boulder Philharmonic, the Symphonia of Colorado, the Waterbury Symphony, the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Pro Arte Acedemy Orchestra, the Souh Bend Symphony and the Duluth Symphony.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the State University of New York-Purchase, a master’s degree in music from Notre Dame and a doctorate in violin performance from the University of Colorado.

Carlson, who joined the Bemidji State Department of Music in 2006, has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at many colleges, universities and festivals throughout the Midwest and southeastern United States, as well as eastern Canada. As one half of the McKay-Carlson Piano Duo, he performs with his former instructor, John McKay of Gustavus Adolphus College. The duo has performed chamber music with members of the South Carolina Philharmonic and South Carolina’s Charleston and Greenville symphonies.

Prior to coming to Bemidji State, Carlson was a faculty member at Coker College in Hartsville, S.C. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Gustavus Adolphus College and earned his doctor of musical arts degree in piano performance and pedagogy at the University of Iowa. He made his New York debut as a solo recitalist in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2005.

For more information, contact the Department of Music at (218) 755-2915.

FOR YOUR CALENDAR
Sept. 7 – 3 p.m. – Bemidji State University Department of Music presents Dr. Michelle Laliberte and Dr. Stephen Carlson in a faculty piano and violin recital. Location: Thompson Recital Hall, Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex, BSU campus. Admission: free. Information: (218) 755-2915.