Historical
Piano Concerts Series
About
the Musicians
Monica Jakuc Leverett
|
Monica Jakuc Leverett
is Elsie Irwin Sweeney Professor Emerita of Music at Smith College. She
has given concerts on three continents, and is a frequent solo and
chamber music performer in Western Massachusetts, playing on both early
and modern pianos. She is often heard as a modern pianist in the
Blaich/Leverett Duo, with tenor Peter W. Shea, and with The Chamber
Music Society at Wistariahurst in Holyoke, Massachusetts. She has
commissioned a number of works by living composers.
Ms. Jakuc
Leverett also presents lecture-recitals on women composers and has been
a featured artist at International Association of Women in Music
concerts in London and Washington, D.C.
Inspired by Malcolm
Bilson, Ms. Jakuc Leverett has performed on early pianos since 1986,
the year of her debut on the present series. In 1990, she was an
organizer and performer at the international HaydnFest co-sponsored by
Smith and the Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies.
A
board member of Arcadia Players period instrument ensemble, she
frequently performs with them on her two fortepianos by Paul McNulty:
a 5 ½ octave Walter design (c.1803), and a 6½ octave copy of
Graf’s Op. 318 (c. 1819). Ms. Jakuc Leverett's discography includes
fortepiano sonatas by Marianne von Martinez, Marianna von Auenbrugger,
and Joseph Haydn on Titanic Records, and Francesca LeBrun's complete
Opus 1 Sonatas for fortepiano and violin, with Dana Maiben, on Dorian
Discovery. Her newest CD, “Fantasies for Fortepiano,” features
works by Mozart, Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, and Beethoven’s “Moonlight”
Sonata. It is available on cdbaby.com.
In July 2006,
Monica Jakuc married Robert T. Leverett, an expert on old growth
forests. Monica Jakuc Leverett retired from the Smith College faculty
in June 2008, after 39 years of service. This is Ms. Jakuc Leverett’s
eleventh appearance on the Historical Piano Concerts Series.
As
the Blaich/Leverett Duo, Tanya Blaich and Monica Jakuc Leverett have
been playing together since 2009. They have appeared in a number of
Chamber Music at Wistariahurst concerts in Holyoke, MA and in other
Massachusetts venues, now including ours.
For more information please visit www.monicajakucleverett.com .