Sigal Early Keyboard Festival
About
The Sigal Music Museum is proud to announce the first annual Sigal Early Keyboard Festival from March 10-12, 2022. The festival will be in beautiful downtown Greenville, South Carolina, under the direction of fortepianist Andrew Willis.
In celebration of the nearly unlimited prospects unlocked by the collection, the theme of this inaugural festival is “Keys to the Sigal.” Proposals for lecture-recitals or mini-recitals on harpsichord, fortepiano, and clavichord are welcomed, as well as for papers relating to these instruments. Friday’s and Saturday’s programs culminate in evening concerts featuring keyboards from the collection, and Saturday’s concert will be followed by a closing reception.
Registration
The registration fee, $125.00 for adults or $75.00 for students, includes museum admission, the opening and closing receptions, morning coffee, and all events of the festival including papers, lecture-recitals, mini-recitals and evening concerts.
Register today via Eventbrite!
Register by mail and make check payable to Sigal Music Museum, 516 Buncombe Street, Greenville SC, 29601.
Agenda
This event is an extension of outreach by the Sigal Music Museum, which hosted the Historical Keyboard Society of North America in 2016 and the American Musical Instrument Society in 2019.
The planned schedule includes:
Thursday, March 10: Registration opens at 12 noon; afternoon guided tour of the museum; 5:30 PM, Reception
7:30 Concert: Elaine Funaro Recital: Early 18th-c. Italian sonatas Sutherland gravicembalo
Gabe Smallwood Recital: Bach, Duphly, L. Couperin, and Sweelinck 1769 Taskin Harpsichord
Friday, March 11
9:15 Tom Strange: Welcome; “The Sigal Music Museum, Its Genesis and the Collection”
9:45 Albert R. Rice: “The recorder collection in the Sigal Music Museum”
10:15 Coffee break
10:30 Alan Montgomery Lecture-recital: “American Reed Organ Music”
11:00 Patrick Hawkins w/ Erika Cutler and Wim Winters (WW via Zoom): “Whole Beat Theory Applied in Beethoven’s G-major Violin Sonata, Op. 30, No. 3”
11:45 Break, lunch on your own
1:15 Akiko Konishi Recital: Third Suite by G. F. Handel 1761 Kirkman Harpsichord
1:45 Abigail Wilemon Lecture-recital: “Debussy & Resonance: Exploring the Capabilities of the Modern Piano in Comparison to its Predecessors” Erard
2:15 Soohyun Yun Lecture-recital: “Between Chopin and Bach in their Keyboard Solo Works” 1863 Erard / 1845 Broadwood?
2:45 Coffee break
3:00 Patricia Garcia Gil Recital: Music of Marianna Martinez, Josepha von Auernhammer, and Pauline Viardot on 1815 Walter & Sohn grand piano
3:30 Break, dinner on your own
7:30 Chamber Music Concert: Andrew Willis and Friends;
Randall Love and Andrew Willis, Mozart Duet Sonata K. 497 on 1784 Stein
Stephanie Vial and Andrew Willis, Beethoven and Wölfl works for cello and piano on 1815 Walter & Sohn
Robin Morace, Stephanie Schmidt, and Andrew Willis, Bach Triple Concerto in C major BWV 1064, on two harpsichords and Sutherland gravicembalo
Saturday, March 12
9:30 Darcy Kuronen Lecture: “Early American Pianos: Recent Research and Discoveries”
10:00 John Koster Lecture: “The Musical Alphabet and the Rise of the Keyboard as a Device of the Literate, Or, Why does the piano have more white keys than black keys?”
10:50 Coffee break
11:15 Stephanie Schmidt Lecture-recital: “Introducing the 1834 Nunns unichord and the ‘liegende Harfe’ (lying harp) Tafelklavier”
11:45 Break, lunch on your own
1:30 Jonathan Simmons and Patricia Garcia Gil Recital: Cello Sonatas by Benedetto Marcello and Christoph Schaffrath , 1784 Stein
2:00 Anne Acker Lecture-recital: “Fortepiano or Harpsichord?: A brief look at works from a time of transition by three women composers” 1784 Stein piano & 1769 Taskin harpsichord
2:30 Robin Morace Lecture-recital: “Moscheles Meets Beethoven, aka Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu” 1845 Broadwood / 1863 Erard
7:30 Concert – Matthew Bengtson Recital: Mozart and Huydts on Stein; Chopin, Liszt, Fauré, and Franck on Erard
9:00 Closing reception
The Sigal Music Museum offers a remarkable number of historic keyboard instruments in concert readiness, available for artists to use upon application in advance. A list of instruments is included with this announcement and is also available upon request. Several venues for performance will be available as demand requires. Proposals for historical instrumental performances and/or presentations by non-keyboard players are also welcome, with artists responsible for providing their own instruments.
- Harpsichords: Anonymous 1660, Kirkman 1761, Taskin 1769, Dulcken 1745
- Spinets: Keene & Brackley 1712, Kirkman 1742
- Grand pianos: Stein 1784, Walter & Son 1815, Schanz 1824, Broadwood 1845, Erard 1863
- Square pianos: Longman & Clementi 1799, R & W Nunns 1830, Nunns & Clark 1834
- Clavichord: Anonymous (Spain) 1780
