Rieth Recital Series: Kate Boyd, solo piano

Join us for a piano recital that showcases a range of compositional styles spanning more than a century of classical piano repertoire. This thrilling program will feature masterpieces by well-known and lesser-known composers alike, representing several different time periods and cultures. The program opens with Muzio Clementi’s intimate yet dramatic Sonata in F-sharp minor, Op. 25, No. 5. This will be followed by French composer Cécile Chaminade’s Thème Varié, Op. 89, a charming set of variations. Selections from Fanny Mendelssohn’s epic masterpiece Das Jahr show her mastery of the piano miniature. The program continues with a set of related short pieces by Frédéric Chopin. Dance rhythms serve as a connecting thread, with a lively Mazurka and brilliant Grande Valse capturing the spirit of traditional Polish and ballroom dances. The recital will conclude with Claude Debussy’s Pagodes and L’Isle joyeuse, which lead the listener through evocative soundscapes.

An active soloist and chamber musician, American pianist Kate Boyd has performed solo recitals at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Schubert’s birth house in Vienna, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Musikhalle Hamburg, in addition to many places throughout the US, Europe and Canada. As a faculty member at Butler University, she has appeared as a soloist with each of the University’s large ensembles in performances ranging from Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Boyd received the 2019 Teacher of the Year award from the Indiana Music Teachers Association and the 2017 Outstanding Professor of the Year award from Butler University, a Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis (2009), and an Indiana Arts Commission Grant. Other awards and prizes include a Fulbright scholarship and fellowships at the Tanglewood Center, Blossom Music Center, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and Prussia Cove (England). Dr. Boyd is Professor of Piano and Piano Area Coordinator at Butler University. For eleven summers she taught at the internationally-renowned Interlochen Arts Camp in northern Michigan.