(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Westminster Conservatory at Nassau recitals will resume on Thursday, January 16 at 12:15pm with a program of music from France for piano duet.  The performers, Ikumi Hiraiwa and Megan Hofreiter, are members of the teaching faculty of Westminster Conservatory.  The recital will take place in the Niles Chapel of Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau Street in Princeton.  It is open to the public free of charge.

The program will comprise duets for piano four-hands that are related to childhood:  Gabriel Fauré's Dolly, op. 56; Maurice Ravel's Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose); Camille Saint-Saëns' Le carnival des animaux; and Georges Bizet's Jeux d’infants, op. 22.

Ikumi Hiraiwa, a native of Japan, earned a Bachelor of Arts from UCLA and a Master of Music from Westminster Choir College of Rider University.  She also holds an Associate Diploma in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada.  Her principal piano teachers have included James Goldsworthy, Victor Labenske, Walter Ponce, and Jennifer Snow.  Ms. Hiraiwa has performed as a solo and collaborative pianist both locally and in major venues, such as the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria.  Additionally, she is a part-time lecturer at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, teaching aural skills to undergraduate music majors.

A Delaware native, pianist Megan Hofreiter performs often as a soloist and collaborative pianist, and she is a frequent accompanist in student recitals and competitions. At Westminster Conservatory she teaches piano, coordinates the concerto competition, and co-directs the summer piano camp.  Her students' recent accomplishments include receiving highest marks in statewide festivals, achieving high honors in examination through the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music (ABRSM) and the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), and participation in community-oriented fundraising concerts.  Ms. Hofreiter holds degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University and from Columbus State University.  She studied piano with Phyllis Alpert Lehrer, Betty Anne Diaz, and Linda Dyson.  Her piano pedagogy teachers include Ingrid Clarfield, Phyllis Alpert Lehrer, James Goldsworthy, Jean Stackhouse, and Steve Clark.

This program is made possible in part by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.