NATCHITOCHES – Duo Korusa will present a concert at Northwestern State University on Friday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. The concert is part of the Louisiana Piano Series International. Tickets are $15. Northwestern State University, BPCC@NSU and Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts students are admitted free with a current student I.D. A livestream will be available at capa.nsula.edu/livestream. Northwestern State Assistant Professor of Piano Dr. John Price and Associate Professor of Piano Dr. Francis Yang are co-directors of the of the Louisiana Piano Series International.
Established by pianists and Lamar University faculty members Sujung Cho and Jacob Clark, Duo Korusa is a versatile piano duo/duet team dedicated to the performance of lesser-known works of the 19th and 20th century, as well as new works of the 21st century.
The concert will consist of works by Beethoven. Duo Korusa plans to record the complete works of Beethoven for piano duet. The album should be released late this year.
Since its inception in 2012, Duo Korusa has been performing rare or newly composed piano duet works throughout the United States. Equally academics and performers, both members of Duo Korusa have a keen interest in research and have presented lecture recitals at national and regional conferences of the College Music Society as well as at the National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Conference at Oberlin College and Conservatory and University of Arizona.
Their recording of Diabelli’s “Sonata in C major for Piano Four Hands” has been published by Symposium, the peer-reviewed journal of CMS and is available in the recording archives of Symposium’s online journal. Duo Korusa has worked closely with composer Thomas Dempster, premiering his work “Congaree Voices” for piano duet and electronic track at the South Carolina Music Teachers State Conference at Anderson University and then performing it at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival at the Abrons Arts Center and Electroacoustic Barn Dance at the University of Mary Washington. Along with the Lamar University Wind Ensemble, they commissioned Dempster to compose a new piano concerto for piano four hands and wind ensemble that premiered in 2017.
Other notable appearances include a performance of the Mozart Double Piano Concerto with the Lamar Civic Orchestra and performances on Lamar University’s Industrial Carillon new music concert series. Awarded a grant from Lamar University’s College of Fine Arts and Communication, Duo Korusa used this funding to record the piano duet works of Marie Jaell and Jane Savage and the resulting album has been released by Centaur Records.
