One of the most sought-after piano duo performers, The Long Duo, will perform at McPherson College as part of the Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series on Sunday, February 25, at 4 p.m. in Mingenback Theatre. Admission to the performance is free.
The duo will also conduct a masterclass on Saturday, February 24, at 10 a.m. in Mingenback Theatre for elementary through high school-aged students of teachers participating in the McPherson Area Piano Teachers League.
Sisters Beatrice and Christina Long have played as a duo since their childhood. They have performed in venues on three continents, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, National Concert Hall in Taiwan, Dallas Museum of Arts, Phillips Gallery in Washington D.C., Spoleto Festival, International Piano Series in Charleston, Grand Theatre (Hangzhou) and Xinghui Theatre (Guangzhou) in China, and Jordan Hall in Boston, among others. The Washington Post hailed the duo as artists “who bring new life to duo piano recitals.”
While achieving acclaim worldwide as a duo, they have also enjoyed distinguished solo careers. Beatrice Long has performed as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony of Mexico, the National Orchestra of Taiwan, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the Jura Symphony Orchestra (France), Ensemble du Monde, New Amsterdam Orchestra (New York), among others. She has given recitals at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, Festivals of Champagne and Fontainebleau (France), Kunsthalle (Appenzeller, Switzerland), the American Embassies in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, and throughout the U.S. Her recordings on Naxos and live performances were featured on NPR, Radio France and TV-NY 1. She graduated with honors from the Curtis Institute, studying with Seymour Lipkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, and Leon Fleisher from the Peabody Conservatory. She is a faculty member at the Music Conservatory of Brooklyn College City University of New York.
Christina Long has performed with orchestras such as the Dallas Wind Orchestra and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. As an active contemporary and chamber musician, she was a founding member of the New England Lyrical Trio. She has performed in Germany, Italy, Canada, Poland, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan. She has recorded for Centaur Records and was commissioned by the Ubiquitous Publishing Company to translate the book “My Life with Great Pianists” by Franz Mohr. Christina served as the Artist-in-Residence at Southeast Oklahoma State University, an assistant professor of piano at Tabor College, KS, and Westfield State College, MA. She was inducted into the hall of fame by Steinway & Sons.
Admission to the Lingenfelter concert is free thanks to a generous commitment to McPherson College honoring Fern Lingenfelter. Lingenfelter, an alumna of McPherson College, taught piano in McPherson for many years to college students on campus and younger students at her studio downtown. Her son, Steve Clark, chairman of Clark Investment Group of Wichita, established the fund that supports two annual music performance events with particular emphasis on piano.