EE Faculty Recital: Mark Churchill, Cello and Constantine Finehouse, Piano

Artist(s)

Mark Churchill, cello 
Dr. Mark Churchill has had the privilege of a long career as a cellist, conductor, educator, and innovative thinker. He is Dean Emeritus of New England Conservatory’s Department of Preparatory and Adult Education, which he led for 31 years. Under his leadership, the Preparatory School became known as one of the best programs of its kind in the nation, emphasizing serious, professional training for pre-college students. He established the School of Continuing Education (now Adult Education) and Department of Community Collaborations in addition to numerous community-based programs and local, national, and international partnerships, most notably NEC at Walnut Hill, the Orchestra of the Americas, Project STEP, and El Sistema USA and the Abreu Fellows Program at NEC. In 2021 El Sistema USA established the Mark Churchill Teacher of the Year Award to honor his legacy.

Mark is currently on the faculty of the NEC Preparatory School and has taught at major summer programs including the Heifetz Institute, Musicorda, Cremona International Music Festival, Foulger Institute, and Greenwood Music Camp.

As a cellist, he has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and chamber music player throughout the United States and on tours of South America. He has performed as soloist with the NEC Symphony and Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Hartt Symphony Orchestra, Thayer Conservatory Orchestra, Symphony Pro Musica, and Merrimack Symphony, among others. He has also appeared in Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taiwan with Trio Pro Musica and on tours of New England and Brazil with Trio Pan Americano. In 2016 he was named Cellist of the Year by the Boston Cello Society and in 2005 awarded Harvard’s prestigious Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award.

Mark is widely known as a conductor in New England and abroad. He has been Music Director of Massachusetts-based Symphony Pro Musica since 1982 and was Associate Conductor of the Boston Ballet from 1990 to 2012. He was also Resident Conductor of the Asian Youth Orchestra (1990–2001) and Conductor of the Thayer Symphony Orchestra (1976–1983) and the Salisbury Lyric Opera and Chamber Orchestra (1986–2005). Guest conducting engagements include Tokyo’s Komaki Ballet, the National Ballet of Mongolia, and the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra.

Throughout his career, Mark has been an active advocate for the improvement and expansion of music education programs in American schools. In addition to El Sistema USA and Project STEP, a pre-professional support program for string students of color, he was a founding board member of the Conservatory Lab Charter School and the Berkshire Institute of Theology and the Arts. Churchill was married to violinist/educator and NEC faculty member, the late Marylou Speaker Churchill. His twin daughters, Emma and Julia were students of the NEC Preparatory School for 14 years before pursuing professional music studies in college.


Constantine Finehouse, piano
Constantine Finehouse was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and attended New England Conservatory, Juilliard and Yale. His principal teachers included Fredrik Wanger, Natalia Harlap, Herbert Stessin, Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Berman and Bruce Brubaker. Praised by Rhein Main Presse Allgemeine Zeitung for his "interpretations of depth and maturity,” Finehouse has performed extensively in the US (including in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Washington) and abroad (including in Lausanne, London, Odessa, St. Petersburg and Trieste). His newest album with cellist Sebastian Baverstam features the universally-admired Brahms Sonata, Opus 38 for piano and cello as well as several new works in the High Romantic style by Boston composer Tony Schemmer. His 2009 solo recording, Backwards Glance [Spice Rack Records 101-01], interweaves music of Johannes Brahms and Richard Beaudoin.

The Bolcom Project, made in collaboration with his American Double partner, violinist Philip Ficsor, included a double-CD [Albany Troy 959/960] and a national tour. Fanfare praised the recording as “indispensable to any serious collector with an interest in later 20th century duo repertoire for violin and piano.” As part of American Double, Finehouse also toured Hungary, performing sonatas by Brahms, Bolcom and Ravel. More recently, he collaborated with violinist Olga Caceànova at Lausanne Conservatoire and on a 5-concert tour of NC and GA as well as with cellist Sebastian Bäverstam at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) and Merkin Recital Hall (Kauffman Center). In partnership with pianists Ursula Oppens and Christopher Taylor, Finehouse is currently recording Bolcom’s complete piano solo works for Naxos Records.  He was featured in a series of concerts celebrating William Bolcom's 75th anniversary in solo and chamber music performances across the United States. Of special note is a solo recital at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. Finehouse has been awarded the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship from Juilliard, a 2004 St. Botolph Club Foundation Grant and 2006 Classics Abroad Project Award. He serves as Visiting Artist/Faculty at Westmont College, Santa Barbara.