Music for Peace: The Formosa Duo

Join us on October 25th for a classical music experience! Music for Peace is delighted to present Cello Balm by The Formosa Duo. Cellist Sam Ou and pianist Chi-Chen Wu will soothe and excite your spirit with music by Schumann, stir up some intense action with Barber, and sing to your soul with Rachmaninoff.

This year has been full of trials and tribulations for our global community, to say the least. Let us join together in our shared love of music, which can certainly be a balm for such troubling times. Cello Balm, as its name suggests, is a concert that will focus on the cello front and center.

About the Musicians:

Since earning their respective doctorate of musical arts degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), pianist Chi-Chen Wu and cellist Sam Ou have been collaborating as the Formosa Duo for over two decades. While respectively maintaining music professorships at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, Ms. Wu and Mr. Ou have individually appeared as recitalists, chamber musicians, and concerto soloists in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Poland, and Bermuda. They have collectively participated in music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Sarasota, Musicorda, Santa Fe, La Jolla, and Monadnock.

The Cello Balm concert will play about 60 minutes worth of music, with comments from the musicians between pieces, and an intermission of about 15 minutes. Reception will follow.

Program:

Robert Schumann (1810-1855): Adagio and Allegro in A-Flat Major, Op. 70

Samuel Barber (1910-1981): Sonata for Cello & Piano, Op. 6
1. Allegro ma non troppo
2. Adagio – Presto – di nuovo Adagio
3. Allegro appassionato

~Intermission~

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Sonata in G Minor for Cello & Piano, Op. 19
1. Lento – Allegro moderato
2. Allegro scherzando
3. Andante
4. Allegro mosso