Neara Russell

In collaboration with the Steinway Society of Massachusetts and Berklee College of Music, young composer Neara Russell will present Duets: A Steinway Recital, a concert of original contemporary classical duets.

The concert will feature an international group of musicians and will be Russell's Steinert Hall debut as pianist/vocalist/composer. The program features the composer on piano in duets with flute, cello, horn, saxophone, and voice, including the premiere of "Sonata for Flute and Piano."

Multi-departmental sponsorship from the Office of Experiential Learning, Piano Department, and Office of Cultural Diversity emphasizes the unusual breadth of vision this recital involves.

Neara Russell

Composer Neara Russell wrote her first art song at age thirteen. "Dawn" was imagined in a daydream as a fully formed work, with original text, notation, and performance vividly stored in the files of her brain.

She has since chased that inspiration from the fields of Wisconsin—where she won state honors for composition and composed works for the Madison Youth Choirs, Taliesin Chorus, and lyric soprano Wendy Rowe—to Boston, where she first appeared on National Public Radio as a featured guest on From the Top.

A prestigious ASCAPLUS Award and commissions from the Boston String Quartet, Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble (with director Robin Ginenthal), and Berklee Contemporary Chamber Music Ensemble (as composer-in-residence) supplement Russell's studies at Berklee College of Music, where she is a composition/performance major on a four-year full-ride Presidential Scholarship.