The first half of the program includes British composer Havergal Brian’s “Legend” for violin and piano (1924) and Beethoven’s Sonata, Piano and Violin, G Major, op. 96 (1812). After a brief intermission, the second half of the program begins with a violin solo “Soliloquy” (1998), composed for Packer by composer Andrew Imbrie, and ends with a Debussy Sonata for Violin and Piano (1917).

An acclaimed concert violinist and educator, Packer is an ardent champion of new music for the violin and in recent years has commissioned and premiered works for solo violin, for violin and piano and for violin and orchestra by Vagn Holmboe, Edwin London, Mary Mageau, Gardner Read, Andrew Imbrie, Vittorio Rieti and William Thomas McKinley. Packer is president of Pro Violino Foundation Inc., whose mission is to support the creation and dissemination of contemporary violin music. She also is the chair of the string department of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass.

Fanfare Magazine has praised Packer for “the warmth and conviction that make her performances very emotionally satisfying.” Packer tours extensively and has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, the National Symphony of Panama, Boston Pops Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic. Her recordings for a variety of labels reflect the wide range of her musical interests.

De Beenhouwer is a frequent solo recitalist in the major concert halls of Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, Dresden and Salzburg and has appeared with orchestras throughout Europe. A Belgian native, De Beenhouwer studied at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp and at the Chapelle Reine Elisabeth in Argenteuil. In 1986, De Beenhouwer and the Vienna symphony premiered Robert Schumann’s “Konzertsatz,” and in 1992 the same artists gave the first performance of a Clara Schumann concerto. Both were unfinished works completed by De Beenhouwer and subsequently published by Breitkopf and HŠrtel. In 1993, for his efforts on behalf of the music of Robert and Clara Schumann, De Beenhouwer received the prestigious Robert Schumann Prize. He was the first pianist to record the complete piano music of Clara Schumann and has also recorded works by Robert Schumann and Ravel. For his recordings of Belgian composers Peter Benoit and Joseph Ryelandt, he has twice received the Caecilia Prize. De Beenhouwer is a professor of piano at the Royal Flemish conservatory of Antwerp and musical director of the “Concerts of Midi” in Brussels.

The program includes a celebrated solo violin “Partita in D Minor” by J.S. Bach; a dazzling sonata for violin and piano by Maurice Ravel; a new transcription of melodies from “Der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss; and a contemporary work by Mary Mageau, “Calls from the Heartland: Five Preludes for Violin and Piano,” an exploration in five short pieces of the emotional states of playfulness, anger and serenity.

Continuing her long-standing commitment to presenting new music for the violin, Packer commissioned the distinguished Australian composer Mageau to write a work for her 1996-97 performances.

Called an “incisive and deeply thoughtful violinist” by The Milwaukee Sentinel, Packer’s performances have won her international critical acclaim. Fanfare magazine admired “the warmth and conviction that makes her performance very emotionally satisfying.”

In addition to her performing, Packer teaches master classes at universities and schools. She is the artistic director of the preparatory division of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass.

Pianist Orin Grossman is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a doctoral degree in music from Yale University. He pursues a long-standing interest in jazz and popular music. His innovative combinations of classical pieces with his transcriptions of jazz piano solos, and his ability to move through different idioms, have led to a successful debut at Carnegie Recital Hall and all Gershwin concerts in Cairo, Egypt, and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Grossman is professor of fine arts and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of Fairfield University in Connecticut.

For additional information, call the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at 207-786-6135.