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Learning to Listen Program Honors Erik Satie

April 1, 2016 By Zubin Hill '17

The Bryn Mawr Learning to Listen concert series hosted a musical performance-lecture in celebration of French composer Erik Satie’s 150th anniversary on Saturday, March 26.

Pianist, Victor Valkov, and violinist Luosha Fang performed Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1 and Choses vues à droite et à gauche. Other works performed included Beethoven’s Piano Sonata (Op. 106), Wagner’s Isolde’s Liebestod, Ravel’s Oiseux Triste, and Poulenc’s One Piece from The Story of Babar.

Learning to Listen events feature a salon-like atmosphere with the performers discussing the musical history, influence, and unique aspects of the pieces they perform.

Born in 1866, Satie was a colorful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. The evening illustrated his musical protest against his forbearers Beethoven and Wagner and the stylistic influence of his work on his contemporaries Ravel and Poulenc.

“He had a very great sense of humor,” said Valkov of Satie. “He would write stuff like, ‘the bureaucrat goes to work’ and ‘expand your head’ in his scores to direct the musicians as to how they should be played.”

Opposed to the sort of emotional expression heard in the work of Wagner, Satie was the first composer who attempted minimalist music, Valkov added.

“I feel like, after the lecture when he started playing …because I had that background knowledge, I understood the song more and I didn’t feel as clueless when I was listening to it and I appreciated it more,” said audience member Nazomi Park ’19.

Learning to Listen is co-sponsored by Bryn Mawr College Office of the Arts, the Performing Arts Series, and Astral, a non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and assisting promising classical musicians within the U.S.

The series was established in memory of alumnae Elizabeth Coleman Mooney ’48 and Susan Norton Coleman ’45, who wanted future generations of students to derive the same great pleasure from music that they did.  The Bryn Mawr Concert Series hosts Imani Winds in Goodhart Theater on April 1 at 8 p.m.

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