The Aron Berkner Duo Performs at Crane for Symposium Friday

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The Aron Berkner Duo features Stephen Aron on guitar and Jane Berkner on flute.

POTSDAM, NY (04/12/2012)(readMedia)-- SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music will host a concert featuring the Aron Berkner Duo in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater on Friday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m.

The concert will feature Stephen Aron on guitar and Jane Berkner on flute, presenting music predominantly from Latin America. They will perform pieces by Luiz Americano, Sergio Assad, Vincenzo Sorrentino, Jose Lezcano, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ricardo Iznaola and Marc Granados.

The Aron Berkner Duo duo has been performing in concert together for more than 10 years. Their repertoire includes all the flute/guitar masterworks and features several works specially written for them. Also, their appearances in Italy have led to the establishment of an annual summer chamber music festival there.

This event will culminate an interdisciplinary symposium, "New Music and the Academy in North America," which is being offered at the College this week in celebration of the 125th anniversary of The Crane School of Music.

This concert is free, and the public is invited to attend.

About the guest artists:

Stephen Aron has established himself at the center of the American classical guitar scene. Recent performances have taken him across North America and Europe, including appearances in Canada, France, Denmark and Italy. An active recording artist, he has released seven CDs, to critical acclaim. Notably, the music he has recorded is almost entirely of his own creation, either by arrangement or composition. His music creations include the complete mazurkas of Chopin, volumes of music of Mendelssohn and Schumann and new works by both contemporary composers and "lost" works, such as the complete guitar works of Walter Burle Marx. Most recently, he has turned his attention to composing; his newest recording features his own original solo works. In addition to his work with the Aron Berkner Duo, he performs regularly with JoNell Aron (soprano), the Gabrieli Ensemble (strings) and Poco Tango (a quartet with flute, bass and percussion). Aron is a professor of music and chairman of guitar studies at the University of Akron and is also the founder of the classical guitar studies program at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Jane Berkner has been on the Ohio Touring Artist Roster since 1992, first with the flute and harp duo Berkner & Bell, and later as a solo artist, performing in recital series and school concerts across the state. She has performed with the Akron, Ashland, Canton and Youngstown symphonies, the Ohio Ballet Orchestra, O'Neil Chamber Players and the Chamber Music Society of Ohio. Berkner released a CD with pianist Kim Bakkum, "In Cynthia's Garden," in 2007. Recognized for her expertise as a flute choir director, she was coordinator of the National Flute Association's High School Flute Choir from 2001 to 2006, and is currently the director of a summer flute choir camp for adults at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is also the director of both the Northeastern Ohio Flute Association's flute ensembles, and the Summer Flute Experience at the University of Akron. Berkner is a senior lecturer of flute at the University of Akron and is a member of the music faculty at Ashland University.

For more information about the "New Music and the Academy in North America" symposium at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/125years/newmusicsymposium.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution, and is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2011-12.

-www.potsdam.edu/crane-