Hungarian Cultural Center, AMP, and pianist Renate Rohlfing present two concerts that connect works by Romantic and modern composers. “Modern Romanticism” proposes that contemporary classical music should not isolate itself from the canonical masterpieces of the past; rather, traditional classical music and its contemporary progeny should mutually contextualize each other.

The first concert presents Beethoven's exuberant late sonata and Schumann's madness-tinged folk fantasies with the modernist exploration of form and sound in the works by Kagel, Ligeti, and Webern. The second concert centers on Ligeti's monumental Horn Trio, here presented with Brahms' first violin sonata and a new composition by Derek Muro for horn trio.

About the Performers
Miss Renate Rohlfing (piano) began her piano studies in Honolulu, Hawaii at the age of three under the tutelage of Professor Peter Coraggio and Mrs. Elizabeth Coraggio. At the Manhattan School of Music she was an active member of the contemporary music ensemble, performing works such as Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques and Ligeti's Horn Trio. She has performed chamber music throughout the United States and Paris with her flute trio Cendres.

Rachel Drehmann, originally from Northeast Wisconsin, began her horn studies at the University of Minnesota. There she studied with Wayne Lu and Dr. Charles Kavalovski, earning a BM in horn performance in 2004. In the summers of 2003 and 2004, Drehmann attended the Aspen Music Festival where she studied with Eli Epstein, Jerome Ashby, Jen Montone, and William VerMeulen. This past May, Drehmann graduated with a MM in classical horn from the Manhattan School of Music as a student of Jerome Ashby.  Since graduation, Drehmann has been an active freelance horn player in New York City. She made her solo debut with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra performing Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 in April 2007.  Also, Drehmann is a member of the indie rock band ‘a whisper in the noise’ with whom she has recorded two albums. The group has toured the United States, Iceland and the UK, including the 2004 UK ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ festival and is featured on the soundtrack of M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Lady in the Water.’ 
Christopher Otto is a composer and violinist from Champaign, IL. He studied composition at the Eastman School of Music with Martin Bresnick, David Liptak, and Robert Morris. As a violinist, he has worked closely with composers such as Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, Matthias Pintscher, Wolfgang Rihm, and Steve Reich. In 2005 and 2006 he served as concertmaster of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Pierre Boulez. He has also performed and participated as a composer in new music festivals such as the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the Stockhausen Courses, the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Music at Mannes, June in Buffalo, and the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Morelia, Mexico. In addition, Christopher is a founding member of the JACK quartet, a string quartet devoted to contemporary music which has performed throughout North America and Europe at venues including Carnegie Hall, La Biennale di Venezia, and the Lucerne Festival, and has worked with the Arditti and Kronos quartets.   Miss Renate Rohlfing began her piano studies in Honolulu, Hawaii at the age of three  under the tutelage of Professor Peter Coraggio and Mrs. Elizabeth Coraggio.  By the age of ten she had been invited to perform in almost every venue in the state, including Hawaii Public Radio and the University of Hawaii.  At sixteen Miss Rohlfing was asked to give a concert tour of chamber and solo repertoire throughout Japan, in the cities of Tokyo, Fukuoka and Kagoshima.  In 2002, after winning two consecutive Morning Music Club Scholarships, the American Music Teacher's Association scholarship in New York, and First Prize in the New Orleans International Piano Concerto Competition, she began her performance degree at Manhattan School of Music with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky.   During Renate's junior year, she was awarded the Presser Scholarship for Academic and Musical Achievement and studied with Professor Daniel Epstein.  She has had the opportunity to participate in festivals located in Holland, France, Spain, New Orleans, Toronto, and Austria.  This summer she received a research grant from the Avenir Foundation and traveled to Vienna, studying at the Schoenberg Society.  There she focused on the development of Schoenbergian performance practice.  Miss Rohlfing was also invited to the Ensemble Modern Akademie in Schwaz, Austria this summer, where she worked with Wolfgang Rihm.  She began her graduate studies at Stony Brook University in September with Christina Dahl and is on a full scholarship.  This summer she will be a participant in the Acanthes Festival in Metz, France.