Mark Chambers headlines Faculty Concert Series next Thursday

A wide-ranging program of duets for cello and piano is on the bill when cellist Mark Chambers headlines at the Faculty Concert Series on Thursday, Feb. 7, with his colleague and frequent collaborator pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico.

This is the fifth of seven performances in the Faculty Concert Series, hosted by York’s Department of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, and spotlighting faculty artists. The performance takes place at 7:30pm in the Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Accolade East Building, Keele campus.

Right: Mark Chambers

The artists will showcase their versatility and musicianship in selections from the classical repertoire spanning two centuries and a variety of stylistic idioms, including romantic, popular and modern music. The diverse program features Beethoven’s Sonata in A major for Cello and Piano, op. 69; Robert Schumann’s romantic, lyrical Fantasy Pieces; Arvo Pärt’s minimalist Fratres for violoncello and piano; and Astor Piazzolla’s jazz-influenced Libertango.

Chambers, who directs the York Symphony Orchestra and the Baroque Ensemble, is associate Chair and coordinator of the department’s classical music area. He is a performer, conductor and early music specialist.

This former Theodore Presser Foundation Fellow, has studied cello with Martha Gerschefski, Lubomir Georgiev and David Miller and has perform extensively throughout the United States and Ontario as a chamber musician and orchestral player. He is part of the piano trio with Petrowska Quilico and his wife Heather Chambers. A member of York’s Music Department since 2005, Chamber’s interests include Baroque music, period instrument performance practice, the "Tartini Tone", and scordatura, altered tunings for strings.

Left: Christina Petrowska Quilico

Petrowska Quilico is an internationally-known pianist and recording artist who has devoted her career to bridging the gulf between traditional and contemporary classical keyboard music. Widely recognized as a champion of Canadian new music, she is equally at home in 19th-century European romantic repertoire.

Since 1987, Petrowska Quilico has taught piano performance and musicology at York. She frequently collaborates in live and recorded performances with her colleagues. She has also appeared in solo recitals, chamber settings and with orchestras on four continents.

Admission is $15, and $5 for students. For tickets, call the box office at 416-736-5888 or click here.