Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Richmond Punch: Mozart & Saint-Georges 'are more alike than people think'

[Richmond Punch, Violist/Violinist]

Et Cetera
Eastfield College
Mesquite, Texas
Erica corbin-Reed
Issue date: 3/2/09 Section: The News
“To celebrate Black History Month, SPAR held an African-American Read-In February 25 in S100, and attended by approximately 50 people. This year's theme was 'A Celebration of Firsts' and college staff and students were invited to present a work of literature, be it a poem, book excerpt, or speech by an African-American writer.” “Elsa Hernandez of the DCCCD District Service Center was one of the speakers. She presented two poems; The Blues by Langston Hughes, and America.” “Another presenter was soloist Richmond Punch, a graduate of Yale's School of Music. Rather than present a literary work, he performed violin pieces. He compared the works of Mozart and le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the former of Caucasian background, the latter of French-African descent. 'I wanted to show people that these two different composers are more alike than people think,' he said.” [Full Post]  

Richmond Punch is a graduate of Yale University School of Music with a Master of Music degree in Viola in 2005 and Bachelor of Music degree from Juilliard in May 2003. He was the 2004-2005 recipient of the Moses Scholarship at Yale University and was the 2002-2003 recipient of the Juilliard Scholarship and the Dallas Juilliard Scholarship at The Juilliard School. At Yale, he served as Principal of Yale Philharmonia and studied viola with Jesse Levine. Richmond has performed with artists such as pianist and composer Marvin Hamlisch.” “Currently Richmond teaches privately in Plano ISD, is a teacher, performer, and he performs with the Las Colinas Symphony. In his spare time he enjoys Salsa Dancing and Foreign Films.” [Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) is profiled at AfriClassical.com]

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