In light of President Reif’s announcement on March 10th regarding COVID-19, this event has been CANCELED.
On behalf of Music and Theater Arts and the MIT Community, I apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your support in Music and Theater at MIT. If you have questions or would like further information, please contact performance@mit.edu
Sara Kornfeld Simpson is a second year PhD candidate in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. A recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, she studies how experience affects the activity of neurons in the visual system. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Boston University (BU) in 2018 with a dual degree, triple major in Neuroscience, Flute and Oboe Performance. She was named the BU Harry Hung Sheng Chou Trustee Scholar and a Davidson Fellow Laureate. Sara served as vice president of Nu Rho Psi, BU's Neuroscience Honor Society and published in two BU journals, The Nerve and the WR: Journal of the CAS Writing Program.In 2016, Sara conducted her first neuroscience research at an NSF REU program at the Scripps Research Institute and was funded to present her poster at the Association for Chemoreception Sciences 39thAnnual Conference, where she was named a finalist for the AChemS Undergraduate Research Award. She received the Mary Erskine Undergraduate Research Award from BU’s UROP program to fund her study of learning and memory in Jeffrey Gavornik’s lab, and successfully defended her senior thesis on this research. She received the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence (highest GPA in the graduating class) from BU’s College of Fine Arts, and in 2017 was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, the music honor society. In her free time, Sara enjoys attending the BSO, exploring Boston and Cambridge on foot, and, most recently, having weekly poker nights with her fellow neuroscience grad students.
Sara began studying piano at age 4, flute at age 10, and oboe at age 11. Throughout high school, she performed in the San Diego Youth Symphony and many honor bands and orchestras, including the National Honor Concert Band, which was her Kennedy Center debut. She returned to this stage in summer 2014 as a member of the NSO’s Summer Music Institute. At BU, Sara studied flute with Linda Toote and oboe with Mark McEwen, performed with the BU Wind Ensemble, Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, and chamber music ensembles, and presented junior and senior recitals on both instruments. Sara was a YoungArts winner in Classical Music/Flute in both 2014 and 2015, toured Europe with the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in summer 2015 (which included performing in the Berlin Philharmoniker), and performed with the Nova Scotia Symphony in the summers of 2015 and 2016. In 2017, she made her Jazz at Lincoln Center debut as the invited soloist for Society for Science and the Public’s Alumni Event. She is now privileged to study flute with Elizabeth Ostling, associate principal flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Program
Sonata in A Major, BVW 1032 (1736) Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
- Vivace
- Largo e Dolce
- Allegro
Sonatine for Flute and Piano (1943) Henri Dutilleux
(1916-2013)
Allegro – Andante – Anime
Syrinx (1913) Claude Debussy
(1862 - 1918)
Sonata for Flute and Piano (1936) Paul Hindemith
(1895 - 1963)
- Heiter bewegt
- Sehr langsam - Im Zeitmaß
- Sehr lebhaft - Marsch
Fantaisie brillante sur ‘Carmen’ (1877) François Borne
(1840 - 1920)
Funded by the late Mr. Cherry L. Emerson, Jr. (SM, 1941) the Emerson Program offers merit-based financial assistance for private lessons to MIT students of outstanding achievement on their instrument or voice in classical, jazz or world music via competitive auditions. Each academic year, the Emerson program for private study offers half scholarships and full scholarships to approximately 50 qualified students out of about 100 who apply and audition for scholarships and fellowships. Auditions are held at the start of the fall semester. Private teacher selections, made in consultation with the music faculty, may include instructors from MIT or from the greater Boston musical community.
