William Frampton, viola and Christopher Oldfather, piano Sunday, April 10, 2011, 3:00 p.m.
Artristic Director Frampton and New York chamber music veteran Oldfather perform Benjamin Britten's Lachrymae, Weber's Andante and Hungarian Rondo, Adagio and Allegro, op. 70 by Robert Schumann, Three Romances, op. 94 by Schumann, and Sonata op. 11 No. 4 by Paul Hindemith.

Violist William Frampton has been praised by audiences and critics for his “beautifully executed” performances (The Arts Fuse) and “a glowing amber tone” (Boston Globe). Having made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2009 at Weill Recital Hall, he has also appeared numerous times as soloist in Boston’s Jordan Hall in performances of Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” with conductor Joseph Silverstein and Hindemith’s “Der Schwanendreher”. William has appeared in recital in New York, Boston, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Florida, and Massachusetts. An enthusiastic performer of new music, William has worked with composers such as Gyorgy Kurtag and Malcolm Peyton. 2010-2011 season highlights include performances of Vaughan Williams’ Flos Campi, Jerzy Sapieyevski’s Viola Concerto, recitals in New York and New Jersey, and chamber music throughout New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.     An avid chamber musician, William’s festival appearances have included Verbier Festival Academy, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Richmond Festival, Kneisel Hall, Sarasota Music Festival, The Perlman Music Program, and others, collaborating with such artists as Paul Katz, Roberto Diaz, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Robert McDuffie, and others. William was a member of the Redwood Quartet, which was invited to study intensively with renowned composer and pedagogue Gyorgy Kurtag at IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England, performing in Boston and England. An enthusiastic outreach performer, he has performed in schools, nursing homes, senior centers, and alternative venues throughout the United States. William is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Music at Bunker Hill, a chamber music series in Southern New Jersey. He holds degrees from New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School, and studied with Kim Kashkashian, Samuel Rhodes, Choong-Jin Chang, and Byrnina Socolofsky.     In his spare time, William writes a blog on some of his other interests: coffee, food and travel, and he can often be found in Central Park training to run a half marathon.

One of New York’s most gifted, trusted, respected, often-requested, and well-liked pianists, Christopher Oldfather has devoted himself to the performance of twentieth-century music for more than thirty years.  He has participated in innumerable world-premiere performances, in every possible combination of instruments, in cities all over America.  He has been a member of Boston’s Collage New Music since 1979, New York City’s Parnassus since 1997, appears regularly in Chicago, and as a collaborator has joined singers and instrumentalists of all kinds in recitals throughout the United States. In 1986 he presented his recital debut in Carnegie Recital Hall, which immediately was closed for renovations.  Since then he has pursued a career as a freelance musician.  This work has taken him as far afield as Moscow and Tokyo, and he has worked on every sort of keyboard ever made, including, of all things, the Chromelodeon. He is widely known for his expertise on the harpsichord, and is one of the leading interpreters of twentieth century works for that instrument. As soloist he has appeared with the MET Chamber Players, the San Francisco Symphony, and Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany.  His recording of Elliott Carter's violin-piano Duo with Robert Mann was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1990. Recently he has collaborated with the conductor Robert Craft, and can be heard on several of his recordings.