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Oracle Piano Society
The Endicott Players of Boston and Tucson, in association with The Oracle Piano Society, will
present the last four piano sonatas of Franz Schubert in concerts on Wednesday, Nov. 15,
at 7 p.m. in Tucson’s Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E Adams St., and Sunday,
Nov. 19, at 3 p.m. in the Oracle Center for the Arts, 700 E Kingston St.
Endicott Artistic Director and pianist Michael Manning will be joined by guest artist, internationally renowned pianist Eleanor Perrone, in two concerts presenting this staple unit of the Western Canon.
Program One in Tucson will consist of: Rondo in A Major, D. 951, Piano Sonata No, 20 in A, Major, D. 959, and Piano Sonata No. 19 in c minor, D. 958.
Program Two in Oracle will be: Marche Militaire No. 1, D. 733, Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, D. 894, and Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major, D. 960.
Admission to the Tucson concert is free, and $30 for the Oracle concert (free for students with
ID). Interested persons can obtain more information about this and other programs at: bit.ly/EPerrone and bit.ly/OPSSchedule.
Eleanor Perrone, piano, shows commitment to the music she is playing, conveyed with electric energy and technical audacity. Her solo programming reflects a focus on drawing the audience into the music, introducing them to unfamiliar works and re-introducing them to familiar ones. Writes the Boston Globe, “Perrone is a pianist who makes you listen.”
Trained at the Juilliard School and Boston University, she holds a Master of Music degree from Boston University and has studied with Patricia Zander, Anthony di Bonaventura, Bela Boszormenyi-Nagy, and Leonard Eisner. Former piano faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, Perrone also served as Associate Chair and Chair of piano in their Community Programs division from 2005-2010. She is on the piano faculty of the Rivers School Conservatory, Weston MA, and maintains a private studio in Watertown, MA.
Michael Manning, piano, has enjoyed an eclectic professional life encompassing academia, print and broadcast journalism and management, scientific research, and software engineering in addition to performance. He’s served on the faculties of Christopher Newport University, Western Kentucky University and Northeastern University, was Broadcast Director of public
broadcasting’s flagship WGBH, Music Critic for The Boston Globe, and Producer for National Public Radio, and is presently a Publications Reviewer for Oxford University Press.
A graduate of Yale University’s School of Music, he’s performed and lectured throughout the United States, and has been an established music critic on both coasts. His radio productions have earned the industry’s highest awards, including Gold Medals from the New York International Festivals and Columbia University’s Major Armstrong Award. Mr. Manning holds advanced degrees in Music, Pure Mathematics and Applied Mathematics and has
served in executive positions at several prominent technology companies, including IBM and BAE Systems. He currently teaches undergraduate mathematics in Tucson where he lives with his wife, Deborah.
In 1987, artist, novelist, and fabled Fantasy publisher Terri Windling formed the Endicott Studio in Boston. Devoted to literary, visual, performing, and environmental arts, the collective was a hotbed of Boston artists contributing to multiple, sometimes original genres within the broad category they described as The Mythic Arts. In 2002, Windling and Tucson author Midori
Snyder together with novelists and artist-entrepreneurs Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman opened the Endicott West Studio in the desert just east of Tucson. Conceived by and for artists with aims akin to those of the Boston studio, Endicott West exists primarily as a residence and retreat for writers, painters, filmmakers, and artists in less conventional media where they can work and play in the rich, aesthetically nourishing desert environment of the Saguaro National Forest.
Pianist Michael Manning and his wife moved from Boston to Tucson in 2012 to become caretakers of the studio compound, bringing with them their connections to the rich vein of the Northeast’s classical music community. Conscious that he was adding a strictly classical dimension to EWest, Mr. Manning invited several of Boston’s acclaimed musicians to perform under the studio’s aegis, forming The Endicott Players of Boston and Tucson.
The studio has since dissolved, but the collaborative spirit survives with the Players, whose annual series of performances occur in multiple cities and bring a drop of refreshment to the culturally dry summer months. Individually and collectively, the Endicott Players are dedicated to performing the acknowledged masterpieces of western classical music mixed with less illustrious though no less lustrous works by their authors, and show a preference for music written since the 18th century. This is not meant as a slight to music of earlier periods (which members of the ensemble frequently perform), but is merely a concession to the practical repertory limits imposed by this particular constellation of artists and the group’s stated goal.
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