Whitney Humanities Center to host new Music Talks program

Music Talks at the Whitney, a new program sponsored by the Whitney Humanities Center (WHC), will feature noted artists from the Yale School of Music in concert and conversation. A distinguished member of the Yale College faculty will introduce each concert.

The inaugural talk for the series will celebrate the music of Franz Schubert and will feature Yue Chu performing Piano Sonata in A Major. It will take place at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13 in the WHC auditorium. Leon Plantinga, the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor Emeritus of Music, will deliver introductory remarks. Following the concert, there will be a question-and-answer session with Chu and Plantinga.

Chu began studying piano as a child in Beijing, China, and won his first performance competition at age eight. He earned his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory and has performed as a soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the New England Conservatory Orchestra, the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, and the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra. He is currently enrolled in the artist diploma program at the Yale School of Music.

A member of the Yale faculty from 1963 to 2005, Plantinga is a specialist in music of the later 18th and 19th centuries. He has written extensively on Clementi, Beethoven, and Schumann. His textbook “Romantic Music” is considered to be a standard in the field.

Upcoming talks on Schubert’s chamber music and lieder are scheduled for Feb. 12 and April 16.

For more information, contact mark.bauer@yale.edu.