Arts and Entertainment

Presenting Sezi Seskir, fortepiano, and Lucy Russell, violin

Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Bucknell University faculty member Sezi Seskir and guest violinist Lucy Russell will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, in 122 Music Building II. The recital features use of a fortepiano and violin made in the 18th century. Both performers are experts on historic performance practice and use of historic instruments. Admission is free.

Program

Violin Sonata in A Minor, Op. 23, No. 4 - Ludwig van Beethoven

Violin Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 454- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Violin Sonata in E Minor, K. 304 - Mozart

Violin Sonata in A Major, Op.12, No. 2 - Beethoven

Seskir received her first degree in piano in her native Ankara, Turkey, with Professor Kamuran Gündemir. She went on with her studies at the Lübeck Musikhochschule, in Germanyshe completed degrees in both artistic and pedagogical piano. She is an assistant professor of music at Bucknell University. Her duties include teaching applied piano, music history and performance practice courses. She is in a duo with the British violinist Lucy Russell, with whom she concertizes on period instruments.

Seskir’s musical direction took a new turn after completing her doctorate in performance practice at Cornell University. Her experience performing on a variety of historical keyboards, including 5-octave instruments from the second half of the 18th century, as well as 6 and 6.5-octave instruments from the first half of the 19th century, enriched and deepened her understanding of the genres and repertoire of these periods. Her research focuses on the use of tempo rubato in Robert Schumann's keyboard music, as well as performance practices of the 18th and the 19th centuries.

She has given guest lecture recitals and workshops at schools such as Stanford University, Penn State University, Princeton University,Trinity College of London, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and UC Berkeley. She presented her work on Schumann at King's College London, the American Musicological Society’s (AMS) 2012 meeting, the Schumann-Haus in Zwickau, Germany, and the Basel Musikhochschule in Switzerland at a Schumann conference. These last two presentations resulted in two articles, both of which appeared by Studio Punkt Verlag, in Germany and in Basel, Switzerland, respectively. Her edition of Robert Schumann's piano works "Arabeske" Op. 18 and "Blumenstück" Op.19 for the Schumann Complete Edition published by Schott, appeared in summer of 2016.

Russell was born in Germany of Scottish/Norwegian origin, but has lived mainly in London. She was a junior exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music, going on to take music degrees at the University of York where she gave the first British performance of the Norwegian composer Alfred Janson's violin concerto "Forspil," based on Hardanger violin traditions. While still a student, she was invited to play with London Baroque and the English Baroque Soloists, and by the City of London Festival as a solo violinist in their production/recording of Monteverdi's "L'Incoronazione di Poppea." She is professor of baroque violin at the Royal College of Music and visiting professor of violin at the University of St Andrews.

Russell likes to divide her time between performing on period instruments and their modern counterparts, exploring music from Monteverdi and Purcell to the present day. At York she studied with three former Fitzwilliam leaders: Christopher Rowland, Daniel Zisman, and Jonathan Sparey; then with Roger Raphael and Dona Lee Croft. She plays on a violin by Nicolò Gagliano, made in Naples, Italy, in c1780. Her baroque violin is by Charles Harris of Adderbury.

Last Updated February 14, 2018