March 9, 2025 | 4 p.m.
Peace United Church, 900 High St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Duo Pianists

Audrey Vardanega and Eric Zivian

Program

Rite of Spring

Schubert: A Major Rondo for Four Hands
Schumann:  Bilder aus Osten
Debussy:  Epigraphes Antiques
Stravinsky  Rite of Spring

Audrey Vardanega

Praised as a “[musically] eloquent” (San Francisco Classical Voice) player “with the kind of freedom, authority, and strength…that one expects from the world’s finest pianists” and a “bewitching musical presence” (The Piedmont Post), American pianist Audrey Vardanega has performed as a solo and collaborative pianist across Europe, China, and the United States.  She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Musaics of the Bay, a nonprofit chamber music series dedicated to music mentorship in the Bay Area.

She has been featured as a solo and chamber musician at the Hangzhou Grand Theater, Festival Napa Valley, the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, the Teatro del Libertador San Martín in Córdoba, Argentina, the Bilbao Conservatorio de Musica, San Francisco’s Old First Concerts Series, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, the Berkeley Crowden School’s “Sundays at 4” Concert Series, Festival del Sole Napa Valley, Rockefeller University’s Tri-Institutional Noon Concerts Series, the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, and the Berkeley Hillside Club Concert Series.

Festival appearances include the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, IMS Prussia Cove, and the Carnegie Hall Workshops. She has received instruction from artists including Leon Fleisher, Thomas Adés, Gidon Kremer, Robert Levin, Miriam Fried, and Jonathan Biss. She currently studies piano with Richard Goode. Audrey lives in Berkeley, CA and New York City; she enjoys cooking and spending time with her shih-tzu and morkie, Romeo and Bear. For more information, visit www.audreyvardanegapianist.com department for over a generation.

Eric Zivian

Eric Zivian grew up in Toronto, Canada, where he graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music. At age fifteen, he left home to attend the Curtis Institute of Music, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree. He holds graduate degrees from the Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music. He studied piano with Gary Graffman and Peter Serkin and composition with Ned Rorem, Jacob Druckman, and Martin Bresnick. He attended the Tanglewood Music Center both as a performer and as a composer.

He has given solo recitals in Toronto, New York, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay Area. He has played concertos with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.

Since 2000, he has performed extensively on original instruments, playing fortepiano in the Zivian-Tomkins Duo and the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio. A longtime member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, he has performed with the Empyrean Ensemble and Earplay. He is a frequent guest artist on the San Francisco Conservatory’s faculty chamber music series.

Eric Zivian’s compositions have been performed widely in the United States and in Tokyo, Japan. He was awarded an ASCAP Jacob Druckman Memorial Commission to compose an orchestral work, Three Character Pieces, which was premiered by the Seattle Symphony.

ADMISSION:

$40 General online
At the door Suggested Donation $40 or pay what you can

MORE DETAILS:

Audrey Vardanega : https://www.audreyvardanegapianist.com/
Eric Zivian: https://www.leftcoastensemble.org/eric-zivian