Ripening Pears: pianist and composer bringing a new work to life
The School of Music welcomes guest artists Heather Shea Lanners and Gregory Mertl who will present a lecture recital. Gregory Mertl will speak about his music and particularly about the compositional process and his approach to composing his work, Pears on a Sill, which Heather Shea Lanners will then perform.
This event is free and open to the public. No ticket required.
“A talent the ear wants to follow wherever it goes” (
Boston Globe),
Gregory Mertl has garnered commissions from the Tanglewood Music Center, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Tarab Cello Ensemble, the Phoenix Symphony, the Big Ten Wind Ensembles, the Ostrava Oboe Festival, Czech Republic, Kenneth Meyer and the Hanson Institute, as well as the Barlow Endowment for a piano concerto for Solungga Liu and the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, which was released by Bridge Records in 2017. Mertl holds degrees from Yale University (BA 1991) and the Eastman School of Music (PhD 2005). In 1998 he was a Composition Fellow at Tanglewood, where he worked with Henri Dutilleux and Mauricio Kagel. Of the Bridge release, the
American Record Guide has written, “There’s a wealth of compositional ingenuity and detail, but better yet there is what I might call attention to the human aspect of music — a concern with drama, passion and psychological complexity alongside any purely technical achievement. That’s what makes me keep listening to it.” Mertl’s most recent works are a trio for clarinet, cello and piano for the new-music ensemble counter)induction, and
Letter for a Dying Soldier for the University of Niš Choir (Serbia). He is presently composing a concerto for the French cellist Xavier Phillips.
Canadian pianist
Heather Shea Lanners has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe as an active soloist and chamber musician. Recent highlights have included solo performances at the Dublin International Piano Festival and a performance of Beethoven’s
Emperor Concerto with the Bulgarian State Orchestra of Vidin under the direction of Maestro Christopher Haygood. As a collaborative artist, Ms. Lanners has been engaged as an opera coach at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Akron and the Cleveland Opera on Tour. She has also served as a resident pianist at the prestigious Meadowmount School of Music and the Holland Summer Music Sessions. Ms. Lanners is currently assistant professor of piano at the Greenwood School of Music at Oklahoma State University. In addition to a busy performing and teaching schedule, she remains active as a guest lecturer, master class clinician and adjudicator. She has also had articles published in the American Music Teacher journal and currently serves as president-elect of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association. Lanners received a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Western Ontario, the Diplôme Supérieur en Musique de Chambre from the École Normale de Musique, and a master’s degree in performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music.
