Music & Concerts
Music for Violin, Cello, and Piano—Palm/Chen Trio | River Road Church
Music by Mendelssohn and Shostakovich
Stefan Palm was born in Aachen, Germany and gave his first organ recital at the age of eleven. At fifteen, he entered both the organ and piano programs at the Musikhochschule in Cologne where he studied with Peter Neumann and Michael Schneider. He passed concert examinations in three different instruments (piano, organ, and harpsichord), a reflection of his prodigious talent and versatility. As a stipendiary of the German National Scholarship Foundation, he continued his studies at The Juilliard School in New York, earning a Master of Music degree in both organ and harpsichord performance in only one year. In addition to his education with Peter Neumann, Michael Schneider, Ulla Graf and Lionel Party, he got the finishing touches during master classes with Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Lionel Rogg, André Isoir, Luigi Fernando Tagliavini, Malcolm Bilson, Gustav Leonhart and Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Palm has been a prizewinner in over a dozen international competitions, including Munich (ARD), Budapest (International Franz Liszt Competition), Berlin, Speyer, Nueremberg (ION), Wiesbaden (Bach), and Bonn. His performances as a soloist or accompanied by orchestras such as the Beijing Symphony Orchestra (China), the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna (Austria), the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (Estonia) and the Bochumer Symphoniker (Germany)include prominent stages as the Concert Hall of the "forbidden city" in Beijing, Kyoto Concert Hall, the cathedrals of Tokyo and Moscow, Hong Kong Cultural Center, Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, La Madeleine, Paris and the Vienna Konzerthaus. In 2015 he was appointed Professor of Organ Literature at the Hochschule fuer Kirchenmusik in Stuttgart, where he now holds the position of the director.
Laura Palm is currently a violin and viola student of Prof. Todd Phillips (Orion Quartet) in the Doctor of Musical Arts Program at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. Born in Germany in 1987, Laura began her violin studies at the age of four and made her first public appearance only a year later. Having skipped two years in elementary and high school, she spent a semester at Haverford College, Haverford, Pa studying violin, chamber music and Chemistry. In 2006 Laura enrolled in the medical school of the Private University of Witten/Herdecke (Germany) where she graduated with a medical degree in May 2013. Meanwhile she earned an undergraduate degree in violin performance and pedagogy at Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, Germany under the tutelage of Prof. Yamei Yu. She graduated from Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance in Philadelphia with a Master’s of Music where she studied with Helen Kwalwasser, Lambert Orkis and Charles Parker. During her time in Philadelphia, she played with Symphony in C and as a teaching artist taught group classes and private lessons in their education program and summer camp, and coached the violin and viola sections of the Symphony in C Youth Orchestra. Additionally, Laura was appointed adjunct faculty and Artist in Residence at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance where she taught private lessons and chamber music in the precollege program and managed the precollege orchestras and chamber ensembles.
Laura has performed as soloist and member of chamber ensembles and orchestras all over Europe, in the USA and in Japan. She served as co-president of the Rutgers Global Health Institute Student Council and received the Rutgers Student Impact Award for her commitment to global health education. Laura has been teaching classes and workshops about musicians’ health to college students and professionals in different conservatories and music schools in the United States and Germany for several years.
Cellist Chen is the principal cellist of the South Florida Symphony Orchestra and has performed on iconic stages including Buckingham Palace, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Alice Tully Hall. A dynamic chamber musician, she has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis, Alisa Weilerstein, and members of the Tokyo, Takács, and Chilingirian Quartets.
She also performs with the Venice, York and Lancaster Symphony Orchestras and appeared in the past with the Reading, Fairfax, and Rhode Island Philharmonics. Her playing is featured on the Grammy-nominated World on a String (BCM&D Records) and the York Symphony’s From Canvas to Concert Hall (Centaur Records).
Chen holds a D.M.A. from Temple University and is on the faculty at Drexel University.
Free parking across River Road and behind the church
From the earliest days of River Road Church, it was the intention of the founders that the music ministry be of the highest quality. Music at River Road Church is rooted in the work of time-honored composers of the “classical” tradition, while embracing a wide range of styles and periods.
The majestic Sanctuary at River Road Church has long been a favorite venue for lovers of traditional church music. This concert will also provide the church an opportunity to share the result of a recent restoration of its magnificent M.P. Möller Company pipe organ. The sanctuary has also received upgrades to its lighting and sound systems, further enhancing the church's worship of God through music.
