Featuring Violinist Frank Ho and Pianist Joachim Segger
May 19, 2023 at 7:30 pm at the North Peace Cultural Centre Tickets: $26
The concert will feature 3 sonatas for piano and violin by Beethoven ). They span roughly a decade in Beethoven’s compositional career, and cover his early, middle, and “heroic” periods.
The first sonata on the program (Op. 12, No. 2) is full of energy and cheerfulness. The second (Op. 30, No. 1), a middle period work, is more contemplative and serene. The final work on the program is the famous “Kreutzer” sonata (Op. 47), which is grandly conceived and virtuosic in spirit.
Violinist FRANK HO enjoys a career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A graduate of Yale University, he studied there with Sidney Harth (former concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics) and Erick Friedman (noted pupil of Jascha Heifetz). Further studies with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England, led to performances on three continents and recordings for the CBC.
As a performer, Frank has performed at venues such as Royal Festival Hall (London), Merkin Hall and Alice Tully Hall (New York), and the Winspear Centre here in Edmonton. He remains active locally as the concertmaster of the Concordia Symphony Orchestra and as a frequent collaborator in chamber music. Recent highlights include the complete Beethoven Violin Sonata cycle with pianist Joachim Segger.
He is currently on faculty at the MacEwan University Conservatory of Music, King’s University and Concordia University. His students have been prizewinners in local, provincial, and national competitions in Canada, and have gone on to further studies at universities and conservatories in Canada, the USA and Europe. Several of his students have performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, and are members of professional orchestras in Canada, notably the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Victoria Symphony, and the Thunder Bay Symphony. Frank is also a member of the College of Examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and was president of the Alberta String Association from 2019 to 2022.
DR. JOACHIM SEGGAR (BMus, MMus, Performer’s Certificate, Eastman School of Music; DMus UAlberta) is a versatile musician who performs regularly as a soloist and as a collaborative artist. Primary mentors and teachers were Ernesto Lejano, Cécile Genhart, Kurt Neumuller, Helmut Brauss and Menahem Pressler. As winner of the New York Canadian Women’s Club competition he performed a solo recital in Carnegie Recital Hall, NY. He recorded the Ravel G Major Piano Concerto with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and performed numerous concertos with the ESO and the Edmonton Youth Orchestra. Joachim’s solo piano CD “Bravato” was recorded on the iconic nine-foot Yamaha concert grand once owned by Glenn Gould, now housed in Knoppers Hall at The King’s University. It features works by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Ginastera, Haydn and Beethoven. Most recently Joachim performed the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas with Frank Ho at The King’s University.
Joachim regularly joins Marnie Giesbrecht as the internationally well-known Duo Majoya (Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame, 2014; Honorary Fellows RCCO, 2015). Together they have commissioned and played more than twenty contemporary works for organ duet, piano duet and the unlikely but magnificent organ/piano combination. Joachim is well known in Canada for his piano and organ improvisations and workshops. Joachim is enjoying his teaching at the U of A this year as a sabbatical replacement for Jacques Despres.
Dr. Segger is Professor Emeritus of the Music Department at The King’s University, Edmonton.