It’s a few weeks still before my recital, but I wanted to take a minute and introduce the new pianists I’m working with.
Many of you know that after last year’s concert, Jeffrey Farrington, who I had worked with for around 30 years, died. He died of a heart attack on November 16, 2023. Whereas I am still grieving his death, I needed to put together a concert for 2024 and reached out to friends and colleagues for new partners.
First, there is Frances Fowler Slade. Frances has been a musical fixture in Princeton for many years, having founded and conducted the Princeton Pro Musica chorus. I ran into Frances in March of 2023 at which point she said, “You play the Brahms e minor sonata – do you want to play it with me?” She had been preparing it for a performance and her cellist had to drop out. We decided to play together for the performances she had scheduled and when she heard Jeff had died, she offered to perform at the chapel with me this year.
FRANCES FOWLER SLADE is Artistic Director Emeritus of Princeton Pro Musica, which she founded in 1979. She was a formerly a member of the choral faculty at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, where she was awarded the Douglass Medal for outstanding service to the Douglass College Community. She was Music Director at All Saints’ Church in Princeton and Grace Lutheran Church in Trenton. She has prepared choruses for the New Jersey Symphony, the Opera Orchestra of New York, New York’s Concert Royal, the Westfield Symphony, and the Princeton Symphony. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, she holds degrees from Wellesley College and Northwestern University. In retirement, she spends her time dancing, playing the piano, learning Spanish and German, teaching ESOL, and traveling. She has been conducting for PSMA since 1982.
Since she retired from Princeton Pro Musica, she has begun improving her already impressive skills on the piano and she has been playing in public in several places. She performs for her piano group, for the Belle Meade Friends of Music and others. She will be giving a recital on New Years Day!