Westminster Conservatory’s Faculty Recital Series is featuring pianists Ena Barton and Phyllis Lehrer during a February evening recital in the Bristol Chapel.
The performance on Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. will be staged at the chapel located on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton.
According to conservatory officials, admission is free for performance.
Officials added that Barton and Lehrer will perform Mozart’s Sonata in D, K. 488, Saint-Saëns’ Variations on a Theme of Beethoven, Op. 35, and selections from Stefan Young’s The Thought for the Day: January.
The pianist duo will be joined by guest artists Craig Levesque, horn; Mimi Morris-Kim, cello; and Elizabeth Lee, cello, to perform Robert Schumann’s Andante and Variations, Op. 46 for two pianos, two ‘cellos and French horn.
Barton and Lehrer started performing together in 1984. They formed this partnership in Princeton. Since then the pianists have been performing regularly throughout the United States.
As solo artists and academic colleagues, they bring a depth of musical understanding to the repertoire of piano duets and two pianos. Their ability to communicate with stunning sensitivity results in stellar performances, according to officials.
Born in Santiago, Chile, Barton began her career in South America, touring her native continent. After winning a national piano competition she traveled to New York to study with Claudio Arrau and Rafael de Silva. Her New York debut at Town Hall was received with critical acclaim.
Since then, Barton’s career has taken her across the United States, back to South America, to Europe, the Near and Far East, Australia and New Zealand. Among her engagements abroad was an extended tour of Israel and Europe, highlighted by performances as soloist with orchestras in Jerusalem, Luxembourg and Rome.
Officials said she has received many honors throughout her career, including an invitation to attend the Casals Festival, a Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant that resulted in a solo recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and the Distinguished Artists Piano Award by Artists International. Her chamber music performances have included appearances with violinist Jaime Laredo and the Guarneri Quartet.
Phyllis Alpert Lehrer is known internationally as a performer, teacher, clinician, author and adjudicator. She has given master classes, workshops and enjoyed an active concert career as a soloist and collaborative artist in the United States, Canada, Central America, Asia and Europe.
According to Conservatory officials, her performances have met with much critical acclaim. A founding member of Young Audiences of New Jersey and the International Society for the Study of Tension in Performance, she has presented regularly at conferences of the Music Teachers National Association, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and the European Piano Teachers Association.
Recent lectures, master classes and performances have been presented at the International Society for Music Education in Glasgow, Scotland, Performing Arts and Medicine Conference in Colorado and New York City, Nebraska Music Teachers Association, Portland District Music Teachers Association, Third Street Settlement in New York City, Brooklyn College Conservatory, the Steinway Society, New York Piano Teachers’ Congress and Westminster Choir College.