Celebrate the start of Bates’s new 2022-23 concert series with solo piano works by J.S. Bach, Ravel, Takemitsu, Liszt and Chopin. Bates College Faculty member, Chiharu Naruse, performs a concert of solo piano works, which will be accompanied by the Portland Ballet Company (under the direction of Nell Shipman) to demonstrate select works (Partitas) by J.S. Bach.

Somewhat inseparable from the act of dance (much like early jazz) the Partita originally described single-instrument pieces of music composed to accompany specific dance movements until Johann Kuhnau and his student J.S. Bach began using it interchangeably with the term suite. During his lifetime, Bach composed two sets of Partitas which helped set the standard for future compositions of this style.

Chiharu Naruse has performed as a soloist and a chamber musician throughout the United States, Germany, France and Japan. Her broad range of orchestral repertoire include performances of Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Mozart and Schumann piano concertos with multiple orchestras. Naruse has also performed with the Da Ponte Quartet, Portland String Quartet, Venti Cordi and the Portland Ballet. Naruse is frequently contracted by recording companies to record contemporary music. To date, she has several recordings with Navona Records and, most recently in 2018, released a solo album of compositions by Kenneth Kuhn from Big Round Records. In addition to maintaining a regular performance schedule, Naruse is also a well respected teacher, chamber music coach and competition adjudicator with many of her students receiving competition awards and gaining acceptance to major music conservatories. Naruse is currently a Collaborative Pianist and member of applied music faculty at Bates College and the faculty of the Portland Conservatory of Music. Naruse is a graduate from Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin, Germany where she studied piano with Klaus Bäßler, art song collaboration with Wolfram Rieger and chamber music with Suzanne Glützmann. She is also a former student of Frank Glazer.

Dancers: Heather Baxter, Erica Diesl, Christiana Youngquist, Nell Shipman

Choreographer: Nell Shipman.

Partita No.6 in E minor BWV 830

Toccata

Allemande

Corrente

Air

Sarabande

Tempo di Gavotta

Gigue

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Jeux d’eau 

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Rain Tree Sketch II

Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996)

Etude Op.25 No.1

 Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor 

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Rigoletto – Concert Paraphrase 

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)