Friday, July 13, 2018—5:30pm
Music of Finzi, Brahms, and Mahler
Edwin Light grew up in Copperhill, Tennessee, where he had his first piano lessons at age five with Dr. Otto Kern. In high school, he continued his music studies with Oina Mitchell, who encouraged him to attend the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At C-CM he completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs in piano with Herbert Newman.
While teaching piano at Western Illinois University he began the doctoral program in piano at Boston University. Near the completion of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, under the tutelage of Maria Clodes, he elected to stay on in Boston, where he taught at several community music schools and in the Humanities Department at Fitchburg State University. He coached German Lieder with Harold Heiberg in Vienna and French Melodie with Marguerite Meyerowitz at Juilliard.
Edwin honed his skills over the years as a collaborative pianist; he performed in Thun, Switzerland for three summers with soprano Scharmal Schrock (Indiana University), and with Swiss singers in a workshop of American music. He toured in the U.S. with violinist Almita Vamos (Northwestern University).
In New Mexico he has performed in the TGIF series in Santa Fe, the Abiquiu Chamber Music Festival, and the State Convention of the New Mexico Piano Teachers Association.. Edwin spends his spare time writing a memoir and traveling with his husband, Jack Cox, and their whippets, Jake and Cooper.
Robert Marcus began his clarinet studies in Los Angeles, where his teachers were Mitchell Lurie and Antonio Raimondi. He received additional training at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Although his primary career was in medicine, Dr. Marcus has been an active musician throughout his adult life, in both orchestral and chamber music. His major orchestral affiliation was the Redwood Symphony, on the San Francisco peninsula, with whom he appeared as soloist in the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, the 2nd Concerto by Miguel del Aguila, “Gnarly Buttons” by John Adams, and “The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind” by Osvaldo Golijov. Dr. Marcus and his wife Ann retired to Santa Fe in 2009. Since moving to Santa Fe, he has given annual recitals at St. John’s College and has performed at the First Presbyterian Church TGIF series on multiple occasions. He also appeared as soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Los Alamos Symphony.