I hope you will enjoy the following two videos to help build context for the Sophie Shao and Friends performance on Friday, April 21. I thank Scott Yoo and Rebecca Mitchell for their efforts to make these videos available to our audience. Cheers! –Allison, PAS Director

For this year’s “friends” performance, Sophie has invited violinist Scott Yoo and pianist John Novacek. This trio had the opportunity to perform together previously on PBS’s Now Hear This—hosted by Scott Yoo—in an episode entitled “New American Voices.” In the episode, the trio performs an excerpt from Reena Esmail’s Piano Trio—which they’ll perform in Middlebury—and in the below clip, Scott speaks with the composer about her musical influences. Many thanks to Scott, for working with PBS to provide access to this excerpt for our audience.

Last year, as I was planning this season, I asked Sophie to consider adding Rachmaninoff to the program as this month celebrates the composer’s 150th birthday. So, I was thrilled to learn I was not alone on campus in looking forward to the Rachmaninoff 150, as Middlebury Associate Professor of History and PASS member Rebecca Mitchell has written an acclaimed book entitled “Sergei Rachmaninoff (Critical Lives)” and recently given a virtual talk on Rachmaninoff as part of Kirill Gerstein’s Kronberg Academy Series. Many thanks to Rebecca for sharing her full talk and discussion with Kirill here for our audience.