The Catawba College Music Department extends an invitation to the public for a guest faculty piano recital, "Three Centuries in Two Countries," performed by Dr. Robert Hallquist on Saturday, January 20 at 7:00 pm in the Omwake Dearborn Chapel. Those attending the free concert are invited to meet the artist and enjoy light refreshments at a reception following the concert in the Lilly Center, located in the basement of the chapel.
The program will include solo piano works representative of the music of Germany and France including compositions by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Arnold Schönberg, Clara Wieck (Schumann), Robert Schumann, Gabriel Fauré, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Francis Poulenc.
In 2004, Hallquist celebrated 25 years of service to American higher education, having been a professor of piano on the music faculties of Mercer University (Macon, Georgia) and the University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, Colorado). That same year he finished an eight-year appointment as Director of UNC’s School of Music before moving to North Carolina in order to accept the position of President of Musikgarten/ Music Matters, Inc., and subsequently to found his own company Clavier21. Hallquist is a seasoned instructor of pianists aged 6 to adults. Building on his previous full-time appointments, he serves on the keyboard staff in the Department of Music at Catawba College and is a Performing Artist Teacher in the Catawba Community Music Program. He also teaches at Davidson College.
Born in Connecticut and raised in Louisiana, Hallquist holds three degrees in piano performance: a bachelor’s from Centenary College, a master’s from Indiana University, and a doctorate from the University of North Texas. His piano teachers have included his father Robert N. Hallquist Sr., Winnie Peters, Eddy Kozak, Nena Plant Wideman, Abbey Simon, Zadel Skolovsky, Joseph Banowetz, and — since 1982 — Sophia Rosoff, President of the Abby Whiteside Foundation.
Active as a recital soloist and chamber musician, Hallquist has performed on Georgia Public Television and on Chicago radio station WFMT’s famed "Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts." With cellist James Fittz, Hallquist has toured southern China, offering recitals and piano masterclasses. He also performed an early version of Robert Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes for the Robert-Schumann Gesellschaft of Zwickau, Germany, as part of the Zwickauer Musiktage in 2003.
In addition to having shared the stage with the DaVinci and Manhattan String Quartets, Hallquist has been a concerto soloist with the Greeley Chamber Orchestra, the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Macon Symphony Orchestra, the Shreveport Summer Festival Orchestra, and the University of Northern Colorado Symphony Orchestra. He has published articles with Clavier Magazine, Early Childhood Connections, and GAMUT: Journal of the Georgia Association of Music Theorists.
Hallquist has presented for conferences of the College Music Society, the Colorado State Music Teachers Association, the Georgia Music Educators Association, and the Music Teachers National Association. Additional professional affiliations include the Music Educators National Conference, where he is a past chairman of the Georgia Music Educators Association’s Piano Division, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, where he is a member of the Historical Perspectives Committee.
