CATARINA DOMENICI - BRAZIL
BORN 14 MARCH
Brazilian pianist and composer Catarina Domenici earned a MM and a DMA degree from the Eastman School of Music, where she was also awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate and the Lizie Teege Mason Award for best graduate pianist. While at Eastman, she was a teaching assistant to Rebecca Penneys. Prior to her graduate studies, Catarina received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, where she studied with Beatriz Balzi, a renowned interpreter of Latin American music. She also studied with pianists David Burge, Yara Bernette, and Maria José Carrasqueira. A prizewinner in competitions as a chamber musician and soloist, Catarina has also received prizes for her recordings. She has recorded for public radio and TV in Brazil and the US, and appeared in concerts in South, Central and North America. Catarina has received many grants, including full scholarships from the Brazilian National Council for Science and Research (CNPq) to pursue her graduate studies.
A dedicated and experienced teacher, Catarina has been working with a great diversity of students since 1991. She is currently on leave of her professorship at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul at Porto Alegre, Brazil. In the US, she served on the faculty at Finger Lakes Community College and Nazareth College, and is currently on the faculty at the University at Buffalo, the Chautauqua Festival, and the Eastman Community Music School. She is frequently invited to give master classes and lecture-recitals, and has served as an adjudicator in competitions in Brazil and in the US. Domenici is presently living in Western New York where she leads an active performing career.
JOSEPHINE LANG - GERMANY
BORN 14 MARCH
Josephine Caroline Lang was a German composer. Josephine Lang was the daughter of Theodor Lang, a violinist, and Regina Hitzelberger, opera singer. Her mother taught young Josephine how to play piano, and from age five it became apparent that Josephine was possessed with great potential as a composer. As early as age eleven Josephine started giving piano lessons herself. Through her godfather, Joseph Stieler, Josephine was exposed to some of the greatest artists of her time. Both Felix Mendelssohn and Ferdinand Hiller went to great lengths to ensure that Lang learned the proper theory for song-writing, and used their connections to publish Lang's music. Even Robert Schumann published a song of Josephine’s in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1838.
In 1842, she married Christian Reinhold Koestlin and moved to Tübingen where he was a professor of law. The couple had six children, three of whom died in tragic circumstances, as would her husband. Despite these enormous reverses, Lang continued to compose and enjoyed the encouragement of composers Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Clara Schumann , who was also one of Europe's best-known pianists. Young Felix Mendelssohn was so impressed by Lang that he visited her daily for several months in 1830 and 1831. Although Mendelssohn's sister, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel , was also composing during the 1830s and 1840s, it was Lang's work which received the most public attention. After her husband died in 1856, Lang began teaching voice and piano to support her large family. A progressive composer who concentrated on piano scores and songs, her reputation was established during her lifetime and she was especially popular in the German-speaking world.
♫ LISTEN
An den See by Josephine Lang
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