Connecticut's Own: Music with Oboe and Piano

Please join us in the Brubeck Room for another Connecticut's Own concert as we welcome back Ralph Kirmser, oboe, and Kyong Hee Cho, piano.  The program will feature Beethoven's variations on the duet "La Ci Darem la Mano," from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.  Beethoven composed this work (Opus 87) at the age of about 24, but it was published later in his life.  The original composition was scored for two oboes and English horn.  It has been subsequently arranged for other instrumental combinations including for oboe and piano.  

The program will also include Robert Schumann's Abegg Variations for piano.  Schumann composed this piece at the age of about 20 while he was a student in Heidelberg, Germany.  At that time, Schumann is speculated to have met a countess, Pauline von Abegg, and dedicated the work to her.  The piece is categorized as his first composition (Opus 1).  The first five notes of the theme are: A, B flat, B. E, G and G.

Ralph Kirmser, oboe, has been oboist for the Madera Wind Quintet, the Prevailing Winds of Connecticut, and the Morningside Wind Quintet of New York City.  In 2000, he was oboist for Orvieto Musica, Orvieto, Italy.  He has been a regular participant at the Chamber Music conference of the East and has served on their Board of Trustees.  While in college, Dr. Kirmser was principal oboist for the Vermont Symphony.  Dr. Kirmser is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale School of Medicine.  He is a resident of Wilton, CT, and has lived there with his wife, Sally, and their three children for 47 years.

Kyong Hee Cho began her piano career in Korea at the age of four.  She gave her first concert piano performance with the Seoul Symphony at the age of eleven.  She attended the Manhattan School of Music as a merit scholar where she earned a BA and MA degree in piano performance.  Kyong Hee has performed numerous solo concerts to benefit international medical and disaster relief.  She teaches piano at her studio in Wilton and provides leadership to her students in the planning and performance of benefit concerts.

Registration required.  Walk-ins welcome as space allows.