Biography

Solon Pierce was born in Plymouth, Wisconsin and received his Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College, where he worked with Robert McDonald. He also holds a Master's degree from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Jerome Lowenthal and Abbey Simon. Further studies have been with Howard Karp at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Grant Johannesen and Diane Walsh at the Mannes College of Music. He completed doctoral work at the University of Minnesota, where he worked with Alexander Braginsky. Dr. Pierce has performed frequently in his native Wisconsin, including appearances with the Festival City Symphony of Milwaukee and the Madison Symphony, and in television (nationally syndicated Music da Camera) and radio broadcasts for Wisconsin Public Radio (Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen), Radio Denmark in Copenhagen, Iowa Public Radio, and the WFMT network, Chicago.

Dr. Pierce has performed extensively as a solo/collaborative artist and given master classes at many colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and Europe with performances at Carnegie Hall (Isaac Stern Auditorium) in New York, the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, the British Music Information Centre in London, Magdalen College and MaisonFrançaise of Oxford University, the FondationDanoise in Paris, the Vendsyssel Festival and Skagens Museum in Jutland (Denmark), with other appearances including Copenhagen, Stockholm, Odense, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Vienna, New Orleans, Tampa, Honolulu, Seattle, St. Louis, Louisville, Albuquerque, Minneapolis, San Diego, and Toronto. An ardent advocate of neglected and new music, his performances have included New York and world premieres of works of KaikhosruSorabji, John Cage, Gunnar Johansen, and Nicholas Brown. In the fall of 1999, Dr. Pierce was awarded an Alumni grant from Oberlin College to conduct research and record Gunnar Johansen's Sonata No. 23 ('Trilogie der Leidenschaft') for Radio Denmark in Copenhagen, and presented an article entitled "Glenn Gould and Gunnar Johansen: A Tale of Two Magi" at the 1999 Glenn Gould Gathering in Toronto

Program

5 Ländler, from D. 790...... Franz Schubert
from Moments Musicaux, D. 780 (1797-1828) No. 2 in A-flat

Vals...... Ramon Delgado Palacios
Mariposas (1863-1902)
Lucila
Como ella
La dulzura de turostro
Isabel
EresMiDicha

Pine Apple Rag...... Scott Joplin Sunflower Slow Drag (1868-1917)
The Easy Winners
Solace
Magnetic Rag

****

Danish Folk Song (1928)...... Gunnar Johansen
Lullaby for Lorraine (1943) (1906-1991)

In a Mist...... Bix Beiderbecke
(1903-1931)

Novelette in Fourths (c. 1919)...... George Gershwin
(1898-1937)

Graceful Ghost Rag...... William Bolcom
(b. 1938)

Suite No. 1 in E-flat for Military Band...... Gustav Holst
Chaconne (1874-1934)
Intermezzo transcribed by Solon Pierce
March