ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — The Western New York Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Glen Cortese with guest soloist the Rev. Father Sean Duggan, will open the Friends of Good Music’s 36th concert season at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The program, titled “Musical Portraits,” opens with Cortese conducting Debussy’s “The Children’s Corner” to be followed by Respighi’s “Trittico Botticelliano.”
After intermission, guest pianist Duggan will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in Eb Major, K.271, popularly known as “Jeunehomme.”
Cortese begins his 13th year as conductor of the orchestra. He is the music director of the Greely (Colo.) Philharmonic and is conductor emeritus of the Oregon Mozart Players. His recent guest engagements have included the Eugene Opera, Madison Lyric Stage, Wolf Trap Opera, the Charleston Symphony, the Sapporo Festival Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Orchestra, the Sofia (Bulgaria) Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Mexico City Philharmonic, and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, among many others.
Duggan is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, La. He obtained his music degrees from Loyola University in New Orleans and Carnegie Mellon University, and received a master’s in theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.
In September 1983, he won first prize in the Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition for Pianists in Washington, D.C., and won again in August 1991. Having a special affinity for the music of Bach, in 2000 he performed the complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard works eight times in various American and European cities.
He has performed with many orchestras, including the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Prague Chamber and the American Chamber Orchestra. He has been a guest artist and adjudicator at the Chautauqua Institution and is currently an associate professor of piano at SUNY Fredonia.
