An Evening of Holiday Memories:

Join Jerzy Kaplanek, violin, and Kevin Day, piano, as they present improvised selections for violin and piano that inspire them during the holiday season.

Jerzy Kaplanek is a Professor of Violin, Strings and Chamber Music, and the String Coordinator at Wilfrid Laurier University.  He is a member of the Penderecki String Quartet (PSQ), quartet-in-residence at Laurier. Jerzy was born in Poland and began his musical training at the age of six on piano and transitioned to the violin at age ten. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Conservatory in Bytom and a Master’s Degree in Arts from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice.

Since joining the Penderecki Quartet in 1987, He has been actively performing throughout Canada, Europe, Asia and North and South America. His solo recording, “Music of Karol Szymanowski” was described by The Strad magazine as “an outstanding release”. He has also released over two dozen CDs (Marquis, Eclectra, CBC, CMC, EMI labels), including an acclaimed recording of the complete string quartets of Béla Bartók with the PSQ and Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Blue Rider Ensemble.

Kevin Day is an internationally acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist, and an Assistant Professor of Composition in Laurier’s Faculty of Music. Day’s musical intersections fall amongst the worlds of jazz, minimalism, Latin, Blues, Hip-Hop, fusion, and contemporary classical idioms. His recent highlights include consideration for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for his Concerto for Wind Ensemble, a Broadcast Music Inc. Foundation award, and his Carnegie Hall conducting debut at the 2022 New York International Music Festival.

Day has composed over 200 works, and has had numerous performances throughout the United States, Russia, Austria, Australia, Taiwan, South Africa, and Japan His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Rachmaninov Hall (Russia), The Midwest Clinic in Chicago, the largest band and orchestra conference in the world, and other major venues.

Listen to their improvisation to launch the 2022-2023 school year https://tinyurl.com/bdeydfbm