8-29-2022 8:35pm

RVCC to Present First Concert in Mozaika Series Season Featuring Piano Trio

Donnella Tilery Editor

Raritan Valley Community College’s Arts & Design department will present a performance by the Arnett-Herrmann-Stuparević Piano Trio, Sunday, September 18, at 2 p.m. The event, the first in the MOZAIKA Concert Series’ 2022-2023 season, will be held in the Nash Theatre at the College’s Branchburg campus. The performance will feature piano trios by Joseph Haydn, Clara Schumann, and Amy Beach.

Violinist Raina Arnett has a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the Julliard School, where she studied with Lewis Kaplan. Passionate about contemporary music, Arnett has collaborated with many prominent composers including Kaija Saariaho, Julia Wolfe, Charles Wuorinen, and George Lewis. She has performed at Carnegie Hall with Ensemble Signal, with the Grafenegg Academy Orchestra in Austria, the Bach Virtuosi Festival in Maine, and as a faculty member at Arts Ahimsa Chamber Music Workshop in Massachusetts.

Cellist Kayla Herrmann has performed in festivals such as the West Cork Chamber Music Festival (Ireland), Ameropa Chamber Music Festival (Czech Republic), Lake Lugano Festival (Switzerland), Dark Music Days (Iceland), and Ravinia Festival (USA). A passionate chamber musician, Herrmann has been awarded top prizes in the MTNA chamber music competitions and can be heard on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. She has appeared as a guest artist with the Cassatt Quartet and with musicians from the Vermeer, Guarneri, Martinu, and Czech Philharmonic Quartets.

Pianist Dr. Marko Stuparević has appeared as a solo performer and chamber musician in over 500 concerts and festivals in the USA, Israel, France, Germany, Serbia, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Slovakia. As a soloist, he has performed with Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra, Razgrad Philharmonic, Symphony Orchestra of the Army House of Serbia, National Symphony of Bulgaria, and Foot in the Door Ensemble. His solo album, Re/Creation - Russian Piano Sonatas, featuring piano sonatas by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Medtner, will be released in October with PARMA’s Navona Records.

The MOZAIKA Concert Series is designed to promote multicultural dialogue through the performance of music from the classical canon through the 21st Century.

A post-performance discussion with the artists will follow the concert. General admission tickets cost $15 each; admission is free for seniors. For advance ticket reservations, contact the RVCC Theatre Box Office at 908-725-3420. For information, call the Arts & Design department at 908-218-8876.

The MOZAIKA Concert Series is made possible by funds from the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.