TESTIMONIALS
An absolutely stunning performance, with a rare commitment, and complete mastery. Highly recommended! Henk Guittart, violist, Schoenberg Quartet
Berklee composition students are still talking about your performance demonstration with awe and excitement. Your presentation in February was so much more than informative and impressive; it was magical. The Composition Department, and especially, our students, can’t wait for you to return. Arnold Friedman, Chair, Composition Department, Berklee School of Music
Barbara Lieurance’s virtuosity is that all too rare combination of imagination and precision. Most importantly, as a teacher and performer she has an uncanny ability to absorb each listener in every sound, and in the unending excitement of discovery.
Les Tung, Chair of the Department of Music, Kalamazoo College
Barbara Lieurance delivered a definitive performance of C. Curtis-Smith’s Rhapsodies. She negotiated the complexities of the piece with such grace and musicianship that the listener would hardly understand the difficulties and extreme demands placed upon the performer. Her performances of early Cage were sublime and communicated the deep sensitivity of the composer often missed by the average pianist. Any audience would feel as though they received a gift after hearing a performance by Ms. Lieurance.
David Colson, Director of the School of Music, Western Michigan University
I feel so fortunate to have heard Barbara’s stunning performance of the Curtis-Smith Rhapsodies. . . . I was simply mesmerized by her virtuosity–and to have watched this performed from memory was truly mind blowing. It really made me think about all the horizons still left to explore inside the piano, particularly with the haunting and alluring sound of bowed strings. This is an absolute must; if you a see a concert of hers advertised anywhere… DO go! Thomas Hecht, Head of Piano Studies, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore
Barabara played [the] Rhapsodies GREAT. It was the best performance I have heard of that piece, including David Burge years ago. I fact, I prefer her performance last night to my own recording. C. Curtis-Smith, composer of the “Rhapsodies”
Barbara has exceptional control, skill and poise in her performances of the music of C. Curtis-Smith and John Oliver. It is difficult to describe the kinds of sounds achieved through the use of bows inside the piano, for they are unlike any I have ever heard….truly magical and otherworldly. Rarely does one have the pleasure of hearing completely “new” sounds on a three-hundred year old instrument. One really must hear AND see her to fully grasp her mastery of the instrument.
Penny Johnson, Conservatory Instructor of Piano, University of Regina, Canada
Each gesture was dynamic–from the evolving timbres evoked from bowed piano strings during C. Curtis Smith’s “Rhapsodies” to the complexly lyrical textures of Gubaidulina’s “Sonata”–she shaped sound into communicative music. I would unreservedly recommend both concert and the presentation to other educators and music lovers. Lisa Coons, Professor of Composition, Western Michigan University. Founding member, “The Collected”