Oscillations: A Dialogue Between Music and Words

Friday, November 17, 7:30 pm

Poet Miriam Stewart and pianist Einav Yarden will present a program of piano works by Schumann, Debussy, Satie, and Kurtag, along with poetry by Stewart. Stewart's poetry, written specifically for this concert and inspired by these works, addresses the thin line between music and words. By joining text to music, they draw on the power of both to evoke image and emotion in order to paint the unique world of each piece.

Click Here to Listen to Sound Clips:
Haydn, Sonata in G Major, mvmt 1
Debussy, Pagodas

Einav Yarden

Israeli pianist Einav Yarden has performed with such orchestras as the Israel Philharmonic, Minnesota Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Plovdiv Philharmonic, and The Israel Symphony, under Sir Neville Marriner, Aldo Ceccato, Mark Russell Smith, Mendi Rodan and others. She was recently a Prize Winner at the prestigious Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition and was also a finalist at Honens International Piano Competition. In addition, she won First Prize at the Aviv Competitions, the most highly acclaimed competition in Israel, including the Guralnik Prize and the Zilbermann Prize, First Prize at the Tel Hai International Concerto Competition, and other prizes. A recipient of the AICF scholarships since 1996, she recently completed four years of extensive study with renowned pianist Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory, earning her Masters and Graduate Performance Diploma. Prior to that, she graduated with highest honors from the Israel Rubin Academy under the instruction of Emanuel Krasovsky. Her festival participations include the Steans Institute for Young Artists of Ravinia Festival, Verbier, Aspen, IMS Prussia Cove, Sarasota Music Festival and others. Her performances were broadcast on WQXR, WFMT, WBJC, CBC and Israel's Kol Hamusica. While in Israel, Ms. Yarden was a member of this country's leading contemporary group, the Israeli Contemporary Players with which she also appeared as a soloist; she continues to make new music a regular and integral part of her performances.

Aside to her solo performances, she is a highly enthusiastic chamber musician, and devotes herself to regular collaborations with other musicians.

Miriam Stewart

Miriam Stewart has been enamored with words since she can remember and has been writing poems since an early age. She earned a Bachelor's Degree in Literature from Yale University, where she studied epic poetry and critical theory. In addition to writing, she currently works as a tutor, a freelance editor, a childbirth coach, and a research assistant at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She recently completed a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program and is in the process of applying to medical school. In her writing, Miriam seeks to synthesize the various worlds she inhabits, to bring the vocabularies of these worlds together and allow them to comment on one another. She has read at Minas Gallery and as part of the i.e. poetry series in Baltimore, and her poems have appeared in PEEKreview. She will be reading as part of the In Your Ear poetry series at the D.C. Arts Center in November. A passionate music lover with a background in classical piano and Eastern European folk singing, she often writes to music, and it informs her writing in both conscious and unconscious ways.