Noémi Lee and Naomi Amos will play selections from Wagner, Brahms, Debussy, Poulenc, Fauré, and Mendelssohn at 7 p.m. Thursday in Sydnor Performance Hall, Elliot & Rosel Schewel Hall.
Lee, who teaches piano as an adjunct instructor at LC, was born and raised in Romania, where she began her musical studies at the age of six. She received her bachelor of music degree from the Gh. Dima Music Academy of Cluj, Romania. She received her master of music degree in piano performance at the University of Alabama. She also served as a graduate teaching assistant in piano and music theory (1997-99) at the University of Alabama.
Among her awards, Lee has received third prize in the Romanian National Competition “Meserii” in 1990 and in the Chautauqua Concerto Competition (1998) and was the winner of the University of Alabama Concerto competition in 1999. She was a finalist in the Brevard Concerto Competition (1996) and the Chautauqua Piano Competition (1999).
Lee has performed recitals in the United States and Europe and has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Cluj, Romania, and at the University of Alabama. She was a featured performer with the Ashland (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra in March of 2001 in a production of Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of Animals, and with the Lynchburg (Virginia) Symphony Orchestra in March of 2010 playing Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto.
She performed with the University of Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra in December of 2012, presenting George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue; and with the James Chamber Players in April of 2013. Lee is the music director of Saint Thomas More Catholic Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.
In spring 2011, Amos joined the Westover Honors Program faculty at LC, where she has taught an arts colloquium and an honors seminar. This year she will add Senior Symposium to her LC teaching schedule.
Amos received her B.A. at the University of Rochester and the Eastman School of Music, and her master of music at the Eastman. She has taught in the music departments of Wesleyan University and Trinity College, both in Connecticut. Her areas of expertise include European music history, American music, and piano literature. Her most recent activities include a series of lecture-recitals titled, “American Piano Music: The Effects of the Melting Pot.”
She has performed at Baldwin-Wallace College, Kentucky Wesleyan College, East Tennessee University, the University of Richmond, Colorado State University at Pueblo, and Weber State in Nebraska. She was a performer in the eight-hand piano concerts in the 2008 and 2009 Gustavo Romero Music Festivals and has served as an adjudicator for their piano competitions.
Amos has been accompanist for eleven productions of Opera on the James. She is music director for congregation Agudath Sholom’s High Holy Days services and she teaches piano at James River Day School.