MBCNews - Cellist, Pianist To Perform in Concert Series at MBC

Cellist, Pianist To Perform in Concert Series at MBC

2004-03-04
Cellist Laura Buruiana and pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera are the next performers in Mary Baldwin College's 2003–04 Carl Broman Concert series. They will play Monday, March 15, at 8 p.m. in Francis Auditorium in Pearce Science Center at Coalter and Frederick streets in Staunton.
Born in 1980, in Bucharest, Romania, Laura Buruiana began to play the cello at the age of 10. She continued her education in Bucharest at the “Georges Enesco” University of the Arts and at the National University of Music. In 2002, she won Young Concert Artists’ European Auditions in Leipzig, Germany. She then won the 2003 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. Buruiana will make her Washington, D.C., debut at the Kennedy Center on March 21, 2004.

Pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera holds a bachelor of music and a master of music from the Juilliard School. She is a specialist in the cello-piano repertory. Discovered and mentored by the great American cellist Leonard Rose, she launched a collaborative career early on by winning the coveted accompanying prize at the VIII International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Since then she has collaborated with cellists including Carter Brey, Aurora-Natalie Ginastera, Jan-Erik Gustafsson, Yo-Yo Ma, and Antonio Meneses.

The music series is named for Dr. Carl W. Broman, a member of the Mary Baldwin College faculty from 1935 to 1976 who built an unusually strong undergraduate music program. For more information, contact MBC Associate Professor Robert Allen at (540) 887-7294.