Award-Winning Piano Duo to Perform posted 1/6/09
Kantorski-Pope Piano Duo will appear in recital

The award-winning Kantorski-Pope Piano Duo will appear in recital on Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 8 P.M. in Dawson Auditorium. The duo consists of pianists Valrie Kantorski and Ann Pope. The program will include works by Rachmaninoff, Brahms, and Gershwin.

“The Kantorski-Pope Piano Duo” is a three-time recipient of First Prize in the OMTA Graves Piano Competition. In collaboration with visual artist Joan McKee, the Duo was awarded the Virginia E. Schrader Residency in the performing arts from the Toledo Museum of Art in conjunction with the national touring exhibition entitled “Impressionism.”

The Duo was selected as members of the Touring Artists Program of the Ohio Arts Council and has appeared as guest artists and clinicians at the Ohio Music Teachers Association State Convention and the West Virginia Music Teachers State Convention. Other activities have included performances with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, appearances on Public Radio and Television, and participation in the New Music and Arts Festival sponsored by the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at the Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts. The Duo will be releasing a new CD of the Brahms Hungarian Dances on the Whaling City Sound label.

Valrie Kantorski teaches applied piano and keyboard classes and accompanies choral ensembles at Adrian College. She is the principal pianist of the Toledo Symphony. Kantorski was born and raised in Miami, Fla. She has performed as solo, chamber, and orchestral pianist with the Florida Philharmonic, Fort Lauderdale Symphony Orchestra, the South Florida Chamber Ensemble, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. Kantorski has been on the adjunct faculties of Florida International University, the University of Miami, Florida State University and Bowling Green State University. She has performed in Europe and in venues throughout the United States; including New York's Carnegie Recital Hall and has recorded on Coronet, Capstone, Access, and Riverview labels.

Ann Almond Pope resides in Chattanooga, Tenn. where she maintains a private piano studio. She has been on the faculties of Bryan College and the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Prior to 1995, she was affiliated with Bowling Green State University as Instructor of Piano in the Creative Arts Program. Her early training was in Chattanooga, at the Cadek Conservatory of Music. While studying there, she was soloist with the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra. Pope received a Bachelor of Music degree from Florida State University where she studied piano with Edward Kilenyi and repertoire with Ernst von Dohnanyi. Her Master of Music degree is from Bowling Green State University. She was a keyboardist with the Toledo Symphony during the 1990’s and a soloist with the Perrysburg (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra. Pope’s arrangements of duo-piano music have been published by Belwin/Warner Bros.

Dawson Auditorium is located off of Charles St. on the Adrian College campus. This event is free and open to the public.