August 16, 2010

David Korevaar. Download image.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Music will present pianists David Korevaar, Yeol Eum Son and Einav Yarden for the 2010-11 UAB Piano Series.

The UAB Piano Series brings the world's finest pianists to Birmingham. Each performance in the series will take place at 4 p.m. on Sundays: Korevaar on Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010; Son on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011; and Yarden on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011. All three performances will take place in UAB's Alys Stephens Center, 1200 10th Ave. South.

Season tickets to all three performances are $30. Individual tickets are $15 for the general public and $5 for UAB students and employees with valid ID. Call 205-975-2787. Visit online at www.uab.edu/cas/music/.

Korevaar began his piano studies at age 6 in San Diego with Sherman Storr, and at age 13 he became a student of the great American virtuoso Earl Wild. According to his press biography, by age 20 he had earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from The Juilliard School, where he continued his studies with Wild and studied composition. He completed his doctor of musical arts from The Juilliard School with Abbey Simon. Currently a member of the Boulder Public Library's ensemble-in-residence, the Boulder Piano Quartet, and University of Texas at Dallas resident Clavier Trio, Korevaar has performed as a guest artist with the Takács, Manhattan and Colorado quartets, among other groups. He was a founding member of the Young Concert Artists award-winning piano and wind ensemble Hexagon, with which he toured for many years.

Yeol Eum Son. Download image.

Pianist Son (her name is pronounced Your-arm Son) was awarded the Silver Medal in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition held in Fort Worth, Texas in June 2009. She performed Brahms' Piano Quintet with the Takács Quartet during the Cliburn's semifinal round, which earned her the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music, according to her press biography. This summer she appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv, followed by a performance in Santo Domingo with the National Orchestra of the Dominican Republic at a gala event featuring the three medalists of the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Fluent in both Korean and English, Son holds a degree from the Korean National University of the Arts, where she studied with Dae Jin Kim. She is currently studying with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theatre in Hannover, Germany. Son will open the 2010-2011 season with a residency in Tel Aviv, performing in solo recital as well as with the Israel Camerata. She will appear in recitals throughout the United States, Korea, Germany, Japan, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Einav Yarden. Download image.

Israeli pianist Yarden studied with renowned pianist Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory and in 2005 earned her master's of music and graduate performance diploma, according to her press biography. She has performed as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Calgary Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Plovdiv Philharmonic, The Israel Symphony, The Spirit of Europe Symphony, under Sir Neville Marriner, Aldo Ceccato, Leon Botstein, Mark Russell Smith, Mendi Rodan and others. She recently won third prize at the prestigious International Beethoven Piano Competition in Bonn, where she also performed with cellist Mischa Maisky. In the summer of 2009 she gave a highly acclaimed debut recital at France's "Flâneries Musicales de Reims" Festival and was invited back for performances in the 2010 festival. Other recent appearances in France include solo recitals at Menton Festival, at Paris's prestigious Salle Cortot, and this past winter at the Grand Salon of the Hotel des Invalides, following a recital tour in the south of France. As part of the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, she was personally invited by Andras Schiff to take part in a special intensive workshop on the Beethoven concerti, which was also recorded and televised throughout Japan in a 12-part program series.

About the UAB Department of Music

UAB is the first all-Steinway piano school in Alabama. The UAB Department of Music presents more than 150 concerts, recitals, master classes, and lectures each year - many of them free - for more than 400,000 people throughout the region. The department features 17 ensembles. It is part of the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, home to academic disciplines that include the arts, humanities, sciences and the School of Education.