Composer Gregory Mertl to launch the 2018-2019 Faculty Artist Series

Revered by the Boston Globe as “a talent the ear wants to follow where it goes,” Mertl has garnered commissions from the Tanglewood Music Center, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Phoenix Symphony, the Big Ten Wind Ensembles, and the Barlow Endowment for a piano concerto for Solungga Liu and the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, which was released by Bridge Records in 2017. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Eastman School of Music; he also received the honor of Tanglewood Composition Fellow, where he studied with Henri Dutilleux and Mauricio Kagel. His most recent works are for a trio of clarinet, cello, and piano for the New York-based music ensemble counter)induction, and Letter for a Dying Soldier for the University of Niš Choir in Serbia. He is currently composing a concerto for the French cellist Xavier Phillips.

Mertl will be joined by Canadian pianist Heather Shea Lanners, who has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. Currently serving as Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at Oklahoma State University, Lanners received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario as a student of Paul Bracey. She also earned the Diplôme Supérieur en Musique de Chambre at the École Normale de Musique while she studied in Paris under French pianist Cécile Ousset. Since the completion of a Master’s degree in Performance and Literature with Barry Snyder at the Eastman School of Music, Ms. Lanners has worked as Opera Coach at both the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Akron. Professional engagements have included regular performances as pianist for the Cleveland Opera on Tour, the prestigious Meadowmount School of Music String Camp, and the Holland Summer Music Sessions. Lanners is active as a guest lecturer, master class clinician, and adjudicator. She has also published articles in the American Music Teacher journal.

Concert is free and open to the public.