HSU School of Music Hosts String Chamber Music Recital

The Hardin-Simmons University School of Music will host a string chamber music recital Feb. 3 featuring Steinway Artist Dr. Mark Puckett on piano and two guest artists from the Dallas Opera Orchestra, Mrs. Sondra Brudnak on violin and Vilma Peguero on cello. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Woodward-Dellis Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Admission is free.

The program will include:

“Suite Italiennne” for violin & piano by Igor Stravinsky

“Piano Trio in G Minor” for violin, cello & piano, Op 17 by Clara Schumann

“Invierno porteno” (“Winter from the Four Seasons”) by Astor Piazzolla

“Escualo” (“The Shark”) by Astor Piazzolla

Mark A Puckett, Piano

Dr. Mark Puckett, Piano

Dr. Mark Puckett has performed as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, Europe, Central America, and Asia. He has worked with many talented conductors including David Itkin, Shinik Hahm, Robert Cronquist, Guy Frazier Harrison and Ray Luke.

Puckett received his Bachelor of Music degree from Oklahoma City Univercity and studied piano with Dr. Clarence Burg and Ernestine Scott. He then completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in piano with Sequeira Costa, Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler and Claude Frank at the University of Kansas.

Puckett has taught at the Bösendorfer International Piano Academy in Vienna, Austria and has won awards in several international piano competitions, including second prize in the 1990 New Orleans International Piano Competition. He has been the Donald J. Feagin Guest Artist at the University of Tulsa and has performed at the French Piano Institute Soiree Musicale.

In addition to performing, Dr. Puckett is in demand as a master class clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator. His recordings include a CD of Chopin’s “Op 10 Etudes”, Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit” and Liszt’s “La campanella” and a CD of two-piano and four-hand piano music titled “Rendezvous,” recorded with his wife, Lauren Puckett. The husband and wife duo frequently perform two-piano programs.

Sondra Brudnak, Violin

Sondra Brudnak, Violin

With a Bachelor of Music degree and a Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Sondra Brudnak has a lengthy list of professional achievements. In 1989, Brudnak won a position with the Dallas Opera Orchestra and is currently the Assistant Principal Second Violin. Since 1997, Brudnak has been the Assistant Concertmaster of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria but has attended the festival for 30 years.

Beginning in 2010, she has taught music appreciation at Tarleton State University in Stephenville and performs chamber music recitals with her group called Strings Attached. Currently, she plays as an extra musician for the Abilene Philharmonic as well as the Fort Worth Symphony. Brudnak has performed 11 of the 16 Beethoven String Quartets as a member of Texas Winds Musical Outreach playing for nursing homes and senior centers in the Dallas area. She has also created a musical program of violin and harp for the nursing homes, hospitals and senior centers in the Eastland and Erath County areas called 51 Strings.

Sondra has toured Japan and Hawaii with the Cincinnati Baroque Ensemble as well as Europe with the Dallas Symphony in 1997.  In addition to attending concerts and opera, her hobbies include travel, cooking, ballroom dancing, horseback riding, and swimming.

Brudnak married her husband (Dr. Dan) in 2007 and together they host foreign exchange students. They now have four daughters; two from Germany, one from Italy, and one from Chile.

Vilma Peguero, Cello

Vilma Peguero, Cello

From the Dominican Republic, Vilma Peguero has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician. She has performed as a soloist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and the Dominican National Symphony, as well as in a chamber performance in the Texas Musical Outreach concert series featuring the Beethoven string quartets.

Respected teacher and mentor in the Dallas community, Ms. Peguero has taught cello and coached chamber music groups at several schools such as Baylor University, Richland College, and Greenhill School. Peguero is a certified Suzuki Cello Teacher and co-directs the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Young Strings Chamber Music Camp every summer.

Peguero earned a Master of Music from Southern Methodist University under the tutelage of Chris Adkins, studied cello under Martha Gershefsky at Columbus State University, and eventually pursued post-master’s studies with Eugene Osadchy.

Ms. Peguero is currently a member of the Dallas Opera Orchestra and teaches at The Hockaday School, where she serves as cello teacher and Assistant to the Orchestra Program.

If interested in keeping up with upcoming performances from the Hardin-Simmons School of Music, visit the HSU calendar online.