Millette Alexander and Frank Daykin return to Stamford for an encore performance to continue Friends of Music's 25th Anniversary Season on Sunday, July 17th at 3PM at the Cyr Center in Stamford, NY.
Alexander and Daykin have performed together extensively in the US and in France, including at Paris' Salle Gaveau and New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim. They recorded two CDs for Connoisseur Society: Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge, winner of American Record Guide 10 Best New Releases of 1996, and Paris Originals, 20th century French masterworks for four hands. The New York Times said "They make music as one," and The Toronto Citizen, in a review of the Bach CD, hailed them as "surely one of the finest piano duos in the world today."
Millette Alexander started her piano studies at age 5, attended the Juilliard Pre-College Program and subsequently entered the Theater Department at Northwestern University. After graduation, she pursued a successful career in acting, performing for many years on television and in the theater. The past 33 years have been devoted to her first love, the piano. She continued her studies with Pamela Mia Paul and Jeffrey Siegal, and after a fortuitous meeting with Frank Daykin in Friends of Music founder Lisa Kovalik’s ensemble class at Juilliard, the Alexander-Daykin Piano Duo was formed and is celebrating its 32nd anniversary this year.
Ms. Alexander is a frequent accompanist and chamber music player and adjudicates for several music organizations including the Juilliard School. She is the Founder and Director of Chamber Music Central, a year-round chamber music program based in Connecticut for intermediate and advanced string, woodwind and piano students. Millette Alexander maintains a private teaching and coaching studio in her home in Westport, Connecticut, where she is also Chair of the committee producing a chamber music series for the Westport Arts Center.
Frank Daykin is equally known as soloist, collaborative pianist, teacher and writer. He is particularly identified with the French repertoire. Mr. Daykin is on the guest faculties of Chamber Music Central (Connecticut) and Chamber Music Festival/Composers’ Forum of the East (Vermont), where his insightful commentaries and master classes are the most popular events. Daykin continues writing an encyclopedia of classical French song, and he has had two volumes of poetry published. Many of his poems have been set to music by contemporary art song composers.
The program for July 17th in Stamford will be as follows:
Alexander and Daykin, Piano Duo
Millette Alexander and Frank Daykin
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Six Epigraphes antiques (1914)
1) Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d’été
2) Pour un tombeau sans nom
3) Pour que la Nuit soit propice
4) Pour la Danseuse aux crotales
5) Pour l’Egyptienne
6) Pour remercier la Pluie au matin
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Grande Sonate (D. 617-comp. 1818, publ. 1823)
1) Allegro moderato
2) Andante con moto
3) Allegretto
INTERMISSION
Antonin Dvořak (1841-1904)
Three selections in “From the Bohemian Forest” (op. 68, 1883/84)
1) In the Spinning Room
2) By the Black Lake
3) Silent Woods
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Ma Mère l’Oye (1908/10)
1) Pavane de la belle au bois dormant
2) Petit poucet
3) Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodas
4) Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête
5) Le Jardin féerique
