Becker-Bogard Duo to Perform Feb. 9 at UW

The University of Wyoming Department of Music Faculty Recital Series presents the Becker-Bogard Duo Friday, Feb. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts recital hall. The recital is free and open to the public.

The duo is composed of cellist Karen Becker, a professor and chamber music coach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and pianist Theresa Bogard, a professor in the UW Department of Music. Becker and Bogard will perform works by Beethoven, Mélanie Hélène Bonis, Heitor Villa-Lobos and George Walker.

In October 2023, the duo released its “American Landscapes” CD, which includes Libby Larsen’s “Juba”; Atlanta composer Laurence Sherr’s “Elegy and Vision” for solo cello; and Walker’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, which will be featured in the recital. The recording, released on the Centaur label, is available for streaming on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and ArkivMusic.

Becker is a passionate and dedicated soloist, chamber musician and teacher. She has performed in the Czech Republic, England, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland and throughout the United States. National and international festival appearances include serving as faculty artist for the International Cello Institute; the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic; Omaha Conservatory of Music’s SoundWaves; and the Red Lodge Music Festival. She also has given cello and chamber master classes around the world and for the American String Teachers Association.

In addition to the duo, Becker is cellist of the Concordia String Trio. The trio’s recordings -- “Viennese String Trios,” “American Vistas” and “From the Heart of Ra: New Chamber Music for Viola by Andrew List” -- also are on the Centaur label and available to stream.

Becker also serves as principal cellist of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, she gave the Nebraska premiere of Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg’s neo-romantic cello concerto with the symphony orchestra.

Becker has recorded for several PBS documentaries and independent films, including “Ashes from the Dust,” “Monkey Trial” and “Willa Cather: The Road is All.” She can be heard on the CD “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn” with the band Bright Eyes. She has been featured numerous times on American Public Media’s “Performance Today.”

Bogard, a Steinway artist, is a versatile performer dedicated to expanding the canon of traditional piano repertoire. As a world traveler with a passion for other cultures, Bogard has performed on five continents. Her extensive discography includes recordings ranging from solo piano to chamber music collaborations, from music of living composers to her specialty in fortepiano and historical performance practice.

Bogard has served on the faculty of the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy and the Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival in Germany. She also has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute with cellist Misha Quint. She has given master classes and performances at several Brazilian universities.

Internationally known as a pedagogue, Bogard has been honored with numerous teaching awards. She attracts students from around the world as a piano professor at UW, where she served as chair of the UW Department of Music from 2010-16. She also has served as an adjudicator at numerous regional, national and international piano competitions.

In 2008, the Carnegie Foundation selected her as the Wyoming Professor of the Year. Her students have distinguished themselves in prestigious piano competitions and have been accepted into the top graduate and undergraduate programs in the country, such as the Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Peabody Conservatory of Music.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.