THE PIANO RAGS OF WILLIAM ALBRIGHT

Nicola Melville

Nicola Melville enjoys a multi-faceted performing career on both sides of the Pacific, active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and as an avid promoter of New Music. Ms. Melville is a native of Wellington, New Zealand, and a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington. She also holds a M.M. and a D.M.A. from the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded both the Lizzie T. Mason award for Outstanding Graduate Pianist and the prestigious Performance Certificate. Ms. Melville has won numerous awards in New Zealand, and she continues her activities as a performer and teacher there, giving concerts and master classes throughout the country regularly. She is also a recording artist for Radio New Zealand, and has been broadcast numerous times in recital. She has toured under the auspices of Chamber Music New Zealand and the QE II Arts Council, and has been a featured artist and panelist in the biannual International Festival of the Arts. She is also a winner of the SAI International Concerto Competition at the Chautauqua Summer Festival and the Connecticut Young Artists competition. Ms. Melville is currently Associate Professor of Piano at Heidelberg College, Ohio.

William Albright (1944-1998) was one of America's most influential and distinguished composers in the latter half of the twentieth century. Although probably best known for his keyboard works, he produced works for almost every medium, several of which involve electronic, visual and theatrical elements. He was the recipient of many commissions and awards, among them The Queen Marie-José Prize for Organbook I, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, two Koussevitzkey Composition Awards, and a Koussevitzkey Foundation commission. He was on the faculty of the University of Michigan from 1970 until his death in 1998.