You Go, Girl!
You Go, Girl!
Girl power dominates the stage at Bona’s Regina A. Quick Center
Photos / St. Bonaventure
Join fellow patrons of the performing arts on Sunday, February 23rd at 3:00pm for a special performance by world-renowned pianist Jennifer Hayghe of “Girl Power - Piano Music written For, By, and About Women” at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University. EllicottvilleNOW caught up with the Quick Center’s Executive Director, Dr. Rachel M. Harris, for comments.
“This presentation is a multi-media presentation on girl power,” said Harris by way of phone interview. “It is music written by women, for women, and about women,” she said. “Transcriptions are written by [the late] Dame Myra Hess, and one of the parts of the repertoire that I’m excited to hear are pieces from a young, upcoming composer, James H. Morris, that he wrote and dedicated to the artist,” Harris continued. “That is where the ‘for women’ came from - by women, for women - and “about women” is a piece by [the late] French composer, Mel (Mélanie) Bonis, and it’s a French title, ‘Femmes de Légende’.”
Hayghe studied piano under the tutelage of master instructor, Adele Marcus, and earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in piano performance from The Juilliard School in New York City. A former piano professor at Ithaca College, Hayghe now serves as chair of the Roser Piano and Keyboard Program at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Music, where she is also an associate piano professor. Her bio includes performances as a concerto soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, in addition to performing in chamber music series throughout the country. Hayghe has taught master classes at a number of prestigious institutions, including the Manhattan School of Music, at The New School’s Mannes School of Music, and as part of the New York University Piano Master Class Series, and at Mannes Prep with The New School’s Mannes School of Music.
“Jennifer’s career has been spent performing and teaching at universities and colleges throughout the country,” said Harris, who added that the pianist has also taught chamber music throughout the United States and abroad.
“All of these performances are very exciting to me for my work,” said Harris. “What I bring to the Quick Center is a very high-level network of artists - performing artists - that I have developed through my 35 years in this career as an opera singer, a stage director, a producer - many of the colleagues that I started with have now gone on to very wonderful positions; some are with the Metropolitan Opera, one of my favorites is with Canadian Brass who is coming in next year, and we are very excited,” she added. “This is our 30th anniversary coming up on April 28, 2025, and our season starts next year with the Buffalo Philharmonic with JoAnn Falletta conducting and we’re so pleased that they are coming down to open our 30th anniversary season. We have a lot of events that we are opening up for our 30th anniversary that are very, very exciting,” Harris stated. She later added that “in addition to musical performances, we have beautiful galleries [at the Quick Center] - it is for visual and performing arts.”
Don’t miss Jennifer Hayghe’s performance of “Girl Power: Piano Music Written By, For and About Women” this Sunday, February 23rd at 3:00pm at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, 3261 West State Street, Cornelius Welch Drive, in St. Bonaventure, NY. The sixth of eight performances in the 2024-2025 season at the Quick Center, this performance is presented in conjunction with Friends of Good Music. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and St. Bonaventure employees, and $5 for students with presentation of a student ID. To purchase tickets, visit https://www.ticketor.com/quickarts/tickets and select the Jennifer Hayghe performance. For questions, contact the Quick Center Box Office at 716-375-2494. According to a St. Bonaventure press release, the galleries at the Quick Center will remain open one hour before the performance and throughout the intermission.
Mark your calendars for the remaining performances in the Quick Center’s 2024-2025 season, which include the Reverón Piano Trio: Highlight of Latin American Music on Friday, March 14th at 7:30pm, and the Atlantic Brass Quintet, featuring five centuries of music performed on trumpet, trombone, tuba, and French horn, as well as music composed by Jeff Scott, the Grammy-award winning composer, musical arranger, French hornist, and professor of music at the University of Buffalo, on Friday, April 11th at 7:30pm. “The collaboration between Atlantic Brass and Jeff Scott is very, very close,” Harris stated. “Jeff is just an amazing, beautiful person!” she said.
For more information on upcoming performances at St. Bonaventure’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, visit https://www.sbu.edu/life-at-sbu/arts-events/regina-a.-quick-center-for-the-arts or call the Quick Center Box Office at 716-375-2494.