Dr. Valerie Cisler
professor and chair, Department of Music and Performing Arts, 308.865.8118
Bach, Beethoven and Debussy will be among the featured composers in a Concerts-on-the-Platte performance by pianist Dr. Catherine Kautsky Thursday, April 12, at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Dr. Kautsky will perform “French Suite No. 2 in C Minor” by J.S. Bach, “Sonata in A Major, Op. 101” by Ludwig van Beethoven and “Images, Book 2” by Claude Debussy, among others. The 7:30 p.m. performance, which will take place in the UNK Fine Arts Recital Hall, is free and open to the public.
She will also present three workshop sessions at the UNK Spring Piano Workshop on Saturday, April 14. Her sessions will include “Happy 105 Claude! A Celebration of Debussy’s Birthday,” “Beethoven’s Piano Music: His Ever-Changing Inner Journey” and “Lecture-Recital.” For more information regarding the Spring Piano Workshop, contact Dr. Valerie Cisler, UNK professor of music and performing arts, at 308.865.8118 or cislerv@unk.edu.
Dr. Kautsky’s solo recital and workshop sessions are sponsored by the UNK Faculty Senate Artists and Lecturers Committee, UNK Office of Graduate Studies and Research, and UNK Department of Music and Performing Arts.
After her New York debut, the New York Times called Dr. Kautsky “…a pianist who can play Mozart and Schubert as though their sentiments and habits of speech coincided exactly with hers…She gave these pieces nuances that made them meaningful on a human everyday level. The music spoke directly to the listener, with neither obfuscation nor pretense.”
Dr. Kautsky has performed throughout the United States and abroad as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and chamber musician. She has appeared in venues including Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, Jordan Hall and Gardner Museum in Boston, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. and the Cultural Center in Chicago. She has soloed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and has frequently performed in France and England, and presented concerts and classes in China, Korea and South Africa.
In addition, she has had articles published in journals including, “Clavier,” “American Music Teacher” and “International Piano,” and recently completed a CD of the Debussy “Preludes,” which will accompany a projected book on the genesis of the music and Debussy’s role in early 20th century Paris.
While serving on the piano faculty at University of Wisconsin – Madison, she was awarded the Arts Institute Creative Arts Award for her work connecting music with other disciplines, particularly literature.
Dr. Kautsky received a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory, a master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a doctoral degree in performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she studied under Gilbert Kalish. She is currently a professor of music and chair of the keyboard department at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wis.
