Past News

Violinist Stephen Redfield and pianist Joanna Burnside continue their celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birth year (2020) this spring by presenting Concert III of The Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin.  Performances include live stream videos from the Mississippi Museum of Art and the University of Southern Mississippi.  Performances will also include a performance at the MGCCC Perkinston campus and visits to Gulfport and Hattiesburg High Schools, as well as Saint John's Episcopal Church in Laurel and First Presbyterian in Biloxi.  A formidable project, their four concerts, covering ten sonatas, began fall 2019 and continues in spring 2021.  

Concert III of the Complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas features the stormy and intense No. 7 in C Minor and the sunny and humorous No. 8 in G Major. Through this series, along with our audience, we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, which passed in December.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCs3A_cl5mc

Violinist Stephen Redfield and pianist Joanna Burnside continue their celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birth year (2020) by presenting Concert II of The Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin. A formidable project, their four concerts, covering ten sonatas, began fall 2019 and will go through spring 2021.  

The concert scheduled in Marsh Auditorium is part of the Faculty Artist Series, Friday, October 16, 2020 (rescheduled from March). It will feature three sonatas from Beethoven’s middle period, No 4 in A Minor, No. 5 in F Major “Spring” and No. 6 in A Major.   

Link to October 16th performance:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCGrf4TVCtk&feature=youtu.be 

The whole of these sonatas represent a sort of encyclopedia of violin and piano writing, with a thorough exploration of moods and characters, forms, stylistic and compositional approaches, and treatment of the instruments as an ensemble. They also span a sizable part of Beethoven’s life as a composer.  To play all the sonatas - and indeed to hear them - is to get to know that encyclopedia, and to experience that life span through the music. 

Dr.s Redfield and Burnside will cherish this opportunity to grow as artists in learning and studying as well as in performing and sharing these works.  

Violinist Dr. Stephen Redfield and pianist Dr. Joanna Burnside will perform in the first of a series of concerts on October 8, 2019, at 12:30 p.m. in Malone Hall Auditorium at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Perkinston Campus.  The event is part of a four-concert series which celebrates Beethoven’s 250th birth year (2020).  They will perform the complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin, a formidable project that covers 10 sonatas in the concert series that will continue through spring 2021.

In addition to MGCCC, concerts are also scheduled at The University of Southern Mississippi School of Music and in a series at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Laurel; St. James’ Episcopal Church and the Mississippi Museum of Art, both located in Jackson; and at Tulane University in New Orleans.

The concerts are offered at no charge and are open to the public.

These sonatas represent a sort of encyclopedia of violin and piano writing, with a thorough exploration of moods and characters, forms, stylistic and compositional approaches, and treatment of the instruments as an ensemble.  They also span a sizable part of Beethoven’s life as a composer, beginning with the classically-conceived Op. 12 (1797-98) and ending with Op. 96 (1812), which some would identify as the first work of his late period.

Redfield and Burnside will play the sonatas in order, grouped 1-3, 4-6, 7 & 8, 9 & 10, one group per recital, over two years, allowing the audience to become familiar with the encyclopedia, and to experience Beethoven’s life span through the music.