Schoenberg’s Society: Reimagined

Erin Hennessey (violin) and Gabriel Merrill-Steskal (piano) transport their audience to Vienna in the early 1920s, and invite them into the unique world of composer Arnold Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances, where contemporary music had a chance to be performed away from the conservative concert hall crowds and critics of the time.
More than 100 years later, the duo reimagines this groundbreaking space, including works by two stalwarts of the Society, Debussy and Ravel, but also including work by Mary Dickenson-Auner, a violinist and composer performing in the Society concerts in the 1920s, but not widely acknowledged at the time for her work as a composer. Like many of Dickenson-Auner’s compositions, Irish Melody of Violin and Piano has not been heard since the early 20th century- this will be an American premiere!
PROGRAM
Claude Debussy: Violin Sonata, CD 148 (1917)
Maurice Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 2, M.77 (1927)
Mary Dickinson-Auner: Irish Melody for Violin and Piano (1911)
Bela Bartok: Second Rhapsody for Violin and Piano
Field Hall Presents: Schoenberg’s Society: Reimagined
Sunday, July 26th @ 2PM
*Tickets $28-$38 Adult, $15 Youth (up to 18)
ABOUT ERIN HENNESSEY
Erin Hennessey is a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician and performs regularly in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. As an orchestral musician, she works with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, and Irish Baroque Orchestra. In 2024, she became the Artistic Director of Olympic Strings Workshop, a chamber music festival for young musicians in Port Angeles . Erin lives in London where she is a PhD researcher at the Royal Academy of Music, studying and performing the chamber music of Irish composer Mary Dickenson-Auner. She also studied at Oberlin Conservatory, Whitman College, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where she taught violin and chamber music until 2023.
ABOUT GABRIEL MERRILL-STESKAL
Gabriel Merrill-Steskal is a multifaceted pianist and musician dedicated to performance, teaching, and scholarship. His recent musical activities are wide-ranging and varied, including commissioning and premiering new pieces for fortepiano by Michael Kropf and Chenghao Li, engraving and recording a new critical edition of Jospeha Auernhammer’s violin sonata on period instruments with Anna Okada, and appearing with the Ann Arbor Symphony as a soloist performing Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. He has won awards in international competitions on both piano and fortepiano (including the Seattle International Piano Competition, Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, and SFZP International Fortepiano Competition) and recently was a fellow at the Gilmore piano festival and Pianofest in the Hamptons. He has also recorded for Blue Griffin Records as part of an upcoming album of new piano music by William Horne.