Guest artist lecture recital: Alexa Stier, piano 2/13/25

The composition studio is pleased to welcome lecture-recitalist Alexa Stier, presenting French piano music of the long twentieth century. In the mid-nineteenth century, the classical music scene was dominated by Germans. Today, France is firmly recognized as a center of musical activity and innovation. The French keyboard music of the twentieth century represents a microcosm of the era's most important artistic currents. This lecture recital journeys from the often-controversial label of impressionism to the school of spectralism and beyond: it samples from Olivier Messiaen’s tremendous output for the piano and follows his influence on the works of the following generation of composers, such as Maurice Ohana, Henri Dutilleux, and Tristan Murail.

The artistic trends changed through the course of the century, yet one distinctly French aesthetic remained: the idea that music ought to be, at its core, a pleasurable experience. In each of the featured works, the composer prioritizes sound and color to create a hedonistic listening experience which sets it apart from the music of other nations. To quote Debussy: in music, “pleasure is the law.” 
 

Program

Cantéyodjayâ (1949)

Olivier Messiaen  (1908–1992)

Piano Sonata (1948) 

I. Allegro con moto

Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013)

Selections from 24 Préludes pour le piano (1972)

Maurice Ohana (1913–1992)

La Mandragore (1993)

Tristan Murail (b. 1947)

Synérèse (2023)

Michaël Levinas (b. 1949)

Réseaux (2021)

Philippe Manoury (b. 1952)
 

About the Artist

Hailed for her “colorful, flexible and expressive playing” (Res Musica), Romanian-Hungarian pianist Alexa Stier appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (UK), the New Britain Symphony Orchestra (USA), the Kelvin Ensemble (UK), and the “Dinu Lipatti” Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania). Alexa has received first prizes in many international competitions, such as the Sheepdrove Piano Competition (UK) and the Virtuoso and Belcanto Concerto Competition (Italy). Most recently, Alexa was selected as one of the top twelve competitors of the George Enescu Competition (Romania), where she also received the Constanța Erbiceanu Special Prize. 

Having premiered over twenty new works, Alexa is also a dedicated performer of contemporary music. She was awarded Third prize, Audience Prize, and the Prize for the best interpretation of a commissioned work at the Olivier Messiaen International Piano Competition (France, 2023). Alexa was the recipient of the “Maurice Ohana” Special Prize at the Orléans International Piano Competition dedicated to the music of the twentieth-and twenty-first centuries (France, 2021). 

Alexa’s most notable appearances include solo recitals and chamber music collaborations at the Time:Spans Festival (NYC), the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts (Chicago, USA), the Liszt Cultural Institute (NYC), Edinburgh Fringe Festival (UK), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (UK), Teatro del Sale (Firenze, Italy), and at the Zaldumbide Rosales Foundation (Quito, Ecuador). 

Alexa is the founder and artistic director of the ContemporArt non-profit organization and Chamber Music Festival based in her hometown, Satu Mare, Romania. Alexa holds diplomas from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Yale School of Music, where she is currently a doctoral candidate, studying with Boris Berman and Wei-Yi Yang. Alexa is a faculty member at the New School for Music Study in Kingston, New Jersey.
 

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