DUO Stephanie & Saar

Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983): Image Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997): Sonatina, arr. Ivar Mikhashoff Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Six Épigraphes Antiques I. Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d’été II. Pour un tombeau sans nom III. Pour que la nuit soit propice IV. Pour la danseuse aux crotales V. Pour l’Égyptienne VI. Pour remercier la pluie au matin Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, Pastorale (Arr. Selmar Bagge) I. Erwachenen heiterer Erfindungen be der Ankunft auf den Lande II. Szene am Bach III. Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute IV. Geiger, Sturm V. Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm Husband-and-wife piano team DUO Stephanie & Saar makes its Phillips Music debut with a program for piano four-hands. Acclaimed for their adventurous approach to four-hand and two-piano repertoire, Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia are also the founders and artistic directors of Makrokosmos Project, a festival dedicated to contemporary American music. Their program moves from the impressionistic colors of Germaine Tailleferre and Claude Debussy to four-hand arrangements of Ludwig van Beethoven’s pastoral Sixth Symphony and Conlon Nancarrow’s 1941 Sonatina. Performers Stephanie Ho, piano Saar Ahuvia, piano Pianists Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia collaborate as DUO Stephanie and Saar in dazzling performances filled with visceral excitement, elegance and artistic vision. “Stephanie and Saar’s last night’s performance once again recalled all the epithets of elegant and innovative, that have been following them throughout their career.”~Radio Sarajevo DUO Stephanie & Saar’s recent appearances include the Gijón International Piano Festival (Spain), Debussy Center Taipei (Taiwan), American Cathedral in Paris (France), Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts (NY), Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation (Miami), Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR) and as featured soloists in the Kozeluch piano four-hands concerto with the Regensdorf Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland) and the Kean NJIO orchestra in New Jersey. The duo’s many return appearances at the La Grua Center in Stonington, CT featured an all French two-piano program of orchestral transcriptions as well as both of Ravel’s piano concerti. Stephanie & Saar have performed in all the major venues in New York City and throughout the United States, Canada, Israel, Germany, France, Spain, Bosnia, Taiwan, Czech Republic and Switzerland. Peak performances include multiple collaborations with New World Symphony (Miami), Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at Lincoln Center (NYC), Wall to Wall celebration for Leonard Bernstein’s centennial at Symphony Space, multiple projects with the Dranoff two-piano foundation in Miami including the world premiere of Fantasia de Tres Mundos by Cuban-American jazz pianist and composer Martin Bejerano, recitals at the Sarajevo Chamber Music Festival (Bosnia) and the Israel Conservatory Tel Aviv and as soloists in Bohuslav Martinů’s two-piano concerto with the Pilsen Symphony (Czech Republic). The duo’s recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of Fugue has garnered tremendous praise; Stephanie and Saar toured The Art of Fugue extensively with stops in Portland (OR), Sacramento, New York City, Phoenix, Baltimore and Philadelphia, among others. “Their vision is of an Art of Fugue that is a work of performance art, not an academic piece to be listened to reverently… This is creative music-making of an extraordinarily high level.”~The Art Music Lounge. Their recording of György Kurtág’s transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s God’s Time is the Very Best of Times was featured on the soundtracks of the feature films Red Trees and La Vénus d’Argent. Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times praised their “beautifully understated performances” of Kurtág’s delicate and soulful Bach transcriptions at NYC’s (le) poisson rouge. Beethoven Dialogues and Cavatine, their albums featuring Beethoven String quartets in piano four-hand transcriptions have received rave reviews from Gramophone, Fanfare, The Whole Note, WQXR and more. Stephanie and Saar are the founders and directors of Makrokosmos Project, an annual music festival in Portland, Oregon dedicated to contemporary American music and performances by Oregon based performers and composers. The 2015 inaugural festival was hailed by Oregon Arts Watch as “one of 2015’s peak Oregon musical moments.” Makrokosmos Project 7: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman featured 19 women composers, a celebration of the 19th amendment, featuring the duo’s complete two-piano music of Meredith Monk interspersed with texts of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg As part of Makrokosmos Project, the duo has commissioned and premiered works by Gerald Levinson, Branic Howard, Gregory Hutter, Kirsten Volness, Juri Seo and many more. June 2025 marks the eleventh festival and will feature music by J.S. Bach, Philip Glass and a new commissioned piece by Oregon composer Bonnie Miksch. While pursuing graduate s