Crane Faculty Present Recital of Sonatas for Viola & Piano

Shelly Tramposh Performs Alongside Pianist Cullan Bryant

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Dr. Shelly Tramposh poses with her viola.

POTSDAM, NY (09/09/2010)(readMedia)-- Dr. Shelly Tramposh, an assistant professor of viola at the Crane School of Music, will perform a faculty recital with pianist Cullan Bryant at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 15 in Sara M. Snell Music Theater. The duo will perform works by Paul Hindemith, Benjamin Britten, Paul Chihara and Paul Siskind.

Tramposh and Bryant will record all of the pieces to be performed in the concert for a commercial release CD, which will be available in early 2011. This is the first of six recitals the two will present together in their 2010 concert season to prepare the recording.

Shelly Tramposh and Cullan Bryant have been presenting concerts together since 2007. They have performed in various locations throughout New York State, as well as on the Hugh Lane Concert Series in Dublin, Ireland. Their repertoire ranges from Brahms to Enesco, and they have received rave reviews from audiences everywhere.

The Irish Times said of the Enesco concert piece, "Tramposh reveled in its technicalities … her tone production had a distinctive complexity" and of the "Moonlight" sonata, "[Bryant's] dreamily romantic reading cast the imagined moonlight in sultry mists; the Allegretto was pensive, the Presto pulsating and feverish."

Shelly Tramposh is an avid chamber musician, and has performed recitals in Europe, Central America, and throughout Northern America to critical acclaim. In addition to performing recitals with Cullan Bryant, she is a member of both the Perron Trio and the Potsdam String Trio. Before joining the faculty of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, Tramposh was a member of several orchestras, including the Colorado Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Colorado Springs Symphony, where she was associate principal viola. She is currently principal violist of the Orchestra of Northern New York and associate principal of the Eleva Chamber Orchestra.

She holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Tramposh has participated in some of the most prestigious summer festivals in the world, including the Festival Dei Due Mondi; the Taos School of Music, where she studied with members of the American String Quartet, the Muir Quartet and Robert MacDonald, and the National Repertory Festival. Her students have been accepted for study at many summer festivals, universities and graduate programs; many of them are now music teachers themselves.

Cullan Bryant is among the most active chamber and collaborative pianists in New York City, maintaining a schedule of more than 70 recitals a year. He has performed with such artists as Emanuel Borok, Misha Keylin, Oleh Krysa, Julia Lichten, Midori, Sviatoslav Moroz and Peter Rejto as well as members of the American, Arcata and Borromeo quartets. Bryant has appeared in recitals with members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, New York City Ballet Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Boston Symphony and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, having performed in such venues as Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Detroit's Orchestra Hall.

Bryant began playing the piano at age two, giving his first public recital at age six. At 11, he toured campuses in his native Arkansas and in Texas, including several televised recitals. Bryant made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1992 in recital with violinist Patmore Lewis. He holds prizes and awards from the Leschetizky International Competition, the National Arts Club of New York, the Memphis Beethoven Competition, Miami Arts Competition and a certificate of outstanding citizenship from Arkansas Governor Frank White.

The recital is free, and the public is invited to attend. For more information about the Crane School of Music's busy calendar of events, visit www.potsdam.edu/newsandevents.

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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.

-www.potsdam.edu/crane-