This Wednesday: Piano Concert with Poetry, Live Drawing, and Dance

Charisse Baldoria

Multi-awarded pianist Dr. Charisse Baldoria is giving a concert on Wednesday, November 7, 7:30 p.m. at Carver Hall, Bloomsburg University.

To top it off, renowned fellow professors from the College of Liberal Arts are joining in with poetry, live drawing, and dance, creating subtle interactions with the music:  Performance artist Hunter Fine will recite works by Federico García Lorca and Rainer Maria Rilke.  Artist Lisa Corine von Koch will create a drawing onstage.  Dancer Julie Petry will perform to arresting rhythms and harmonies.  It would be the first ever collaboration of its kind.

Performing warhorses of the piano repertoire, Dr. Baldoria will play classical works inspired by the world’s varied musical traditions:  Spanish pieces from Albéniz’ monumental Iberia, two Scarlatti sonatas (one in fandango style), three Cuban pieces, and a set inspired by Southeast Asian gongs—featuring works by Debussy, Filipino composer Ramón Santos, and New Zealander Gareth Farr.

Julie Petry

In creating her programs, Dr. Baldoria taps into her complex Filipino identity.  She juxtaposes the indigenous with the colonial, performing music from and inspired by Southeast Asia and Spain, of which the Philippines was a colony for 333 years.  A seasoned performer, Charisse has performed in four continents and won awards in international competitions, including the San Antonio, Hilton Head Island, and Sydney international piano competitions.  She first came to the United States as a Fulbright scholar from the Philippines and got her masters and doctorate from the University of Michigan.  She directs the piano program at Bloomsburg University.

Julie Petry is a multi-Emmy nominated dancer-choreographer formerly based in the Chicago area.  She has worked with PBS/Heartsong Communications; Dance Chicago; and the Summer Palace, Centerlight, and Metropolis Performing Arts Center theatres, among others.  She earned her masters at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Lisa Corine von Koch

Lisa Corine von Koch’s work features sculpture, performance and installation, incorporating ecological practices into art making, and expressing intersections between nature and culture.  She received her masters in Painting and Drawing from Arizona State University and has done numerous exhibitions around the western United States.




A performance artist and communication scholar, Dr. Hunter H. Fine has worked on solo and ensemble shows in the Marion Klineau Theater in Southern Illinois, the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, and the Marsh in San Francisco.  His recent scholarship has revolved around the performative constructions of everyday social and civic spaces.

     The concert is free and open to the public.