Westminster Conservatory at Nassau presents Music for Solo and Duo Piano

Born in Santiago, Chile, pianist Ena Bronstein Barton began her career in South America, touring her native continent. After winning a national piano competition she traveled to New York to study with Claudio Arrau and Rafael de Silva. Her New York debut at Town Hall was received with critical acclaim. Since then, Ms. Barton’s career has taken her across the United States, back to South America, to Europe, the Near and Far East, Australia and New Zealand. Among her engagements abroad was an extended tour of Israel and Europe, highlighted by performances as soloist with orchestras in Jerusalem, Luxembourg and Rome.

Ms. Barton has received many honors throughout her career, including an invitation to attend the Casals Festival, a Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant that resulted in a solo recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and the 1996 Distinguished Artists Piano Award by Artists International. Her chamber music performances have included appearances with violinist Jaime Laredo and the Guarneri Quartet. Her piano partnership with pianist Phyllis Alpert Lehrer spans decades.

Ms. Barton taught at California State University-Fresno for thirteen years. She was artist-in- residence at Monterey Peninsula College in California and has conducted master classes at the University of Veracruz in Xalapa, Mexico and in Santiago, Chile. In the spring of 2003, she gave a recital and master class as part of the centennial celebration of Claudio Arrau’s birthday being held in New York City at the Greenwich House Music School. Her latest concert tour to Brazil in 2007 included a master class and recitals in Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro. Ms. Barton served as head of the piano department at the Westminster Conservatory for many years, and as adjunct associate professor of piano at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.

Phyllis Alpert Lehrer is known internationally as a teacher, performer, clinician, author, and adjudicator. She has given master classes, workshops and enjoyed an active concert career as a soloist and collaborative artist in the United States, Canada, Central and South America, Asia, and Europe. Ms. Lehrer is Professor Emerita of Piano at Westminster Choir College and continues to serve on the faculty of Westminster Conservatory. Her collaboration of over thirty-five years with duo piano partner, Ena Bronstein Barton, includes two CD’s featuring duets of Mozart, Schubert, and Debussy, and two-piano works of Laurie Altman, Mozart, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff. Recent publications include five volumes of the great piano repertoire, Classics for the Developing Pianist, co-edited with Ingrid Clarfield, along with accompanying study guides. An additional five volumes, entitled Personal Trainer and devoted to keyboard theory, sight playing, technique, and repertoire with midi accompaniments, are co-authored with Paul Sheftel. Ms. Lehrer received a BA with music concentration from the University of Rochester and Eastman School of Music and an MS in piano from the Juilliard School of Music. Honors include becoming a MTNA Foundation Fellow in 2007, NJMTA Teacher of the Year for 2012-2013, the Westminster Merit Award from the Westminster Alumni Association in 2019, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy/Frances Clark Center Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding dedication to the field of music and piano teaching in July 2021.

Suzanne Lehrer joined the piano faculty of Westminster Conservatory in 1998, having graduated from Westminster Choir College of Rider University in May of 2000 with a Master of Music in Piano Performance. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree with a concentration in piano and a minor in English literature from the University of Rochester. As part of her undergraduate education she studied classical and jazz piano at the Eastman School of Music. Suzanne has had many roles at Westminster Conservatory. As a member of the piano faculty she has taught private and group piano lessons, coached chamber music and performance classes for the Honors Music Program, and founded and directed the Westminster Conservatory Piano Camp (Piano Academy). At present Suzanne serves as director of both the Conservatory’s Honors Music Program and two summer programs , Piano Academy and Westminster Chamber Music. Suzanne also runs a private piano studio in Princeton, and recently joined the piano faculty at the New School for Music Study in Kingston, NJ. Since 2016, Suzanne has been part of the piano faculty at Camp Encore/Coda in Sweden, Maine, where she teaches piano, coordinates and coaches chamber music, serves as an accompanist for campers, and performs in faculty recitals. The current Arts Advocacy Chairperson for the New Jersey Music Teachers Association, Suzanne has coordinated the annual Children Helping Children Performathon for the eight years. With an interest in furthering her understanding and knowledge of management, organizational structure, and diversity and equity within organizations and communities, Suzanne completed a Master of Social Work with a focus on management and policy at Rutgers University in 2021.