Ives and the Unfinished America

Join us for an afternoon of music by American composer, Charles Ives, featuring violinist Lydia Forbes and pianists Yuri Funahashi and Steven Pane. The program includes “Thoreau,” “4th Sonata,” and, for four-hand piano, “Variations on America.” 

About the Artists:

Lydia Forbes is an international performer and recipient of awards in the U.S. and abroad. Lydia moved to the Netherlands on a Beebe Fund grant before settling in Maine to join the DaPonte String Quartet. While in the Netherlands, she was awarded the Tera de Marez Oyens prize and traveled widely as a member of European chamber ensembles, including L’Archibudelli, Het Schönberg Ensemble, Zephyr Kwartet, and Ensemble Explorations. Her performing life has taken her to every continent except Antarctica and to concert halls in New York, London, Amsterdam, Boston, Paris, Lisbon, Prague, Napoli, Munich, Berlin, Oslo, Vienna, Melbourne, and many others. She has recorded for Sony Classical and Harmonia Mundi. 

Pianist Yuri Funahashi has performed extensively in Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia, as well as in many of the major halls in the United States, including the Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Music Center in Los Angeles, Jones Hall in Houston, and the 92nd Street Y in New York City. She has also been heard on numerous college campuses across the country, such as the Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory, Harvard University, Goucher College, Colby College, Bates College, Kalamazoo College, Michigan State University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Louisville, the University of Connecticut, the University of Southern California, the University of Miami, the University of Central Florida, and Tulane University, among others.

Born in Japan, Funahashi moved to the United States at a young age with her family and received her education there, culminating in a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School. She has recorded for Musical Heritage and John Marks Records and is Professor Emeritus at Colby College.

Steven Pane’s career as a pianist and conductor emerges out of his life-long interest in the interdisciplinary study and performance of music. At UMF his work often involves collaborations such as the Celestial Emporium with poet Jeff Thompson and artist Dawn Nye; Intertextuality, Bakhtin, and Ives’s Concord Sonata with Tiane Donahue; or Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Stories with author Pat O’Donnell. Most recently, Pane gave the American premier of Ana-Maria Avram’s Musique pour Mallarme, at Harvard and UMF in 2010, and shares Avram and her partner Iancu Dumitrescu’s interest in phenomenology and music. Dr. Pane has performed at universities and in major halls throughout the country including the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Aaron Davis Hall in New York City, Davies Hall in San Francisco, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.