Tonnu Piano Recital Feb. 11

Pianist Tuyen Tonnu of Illinois State University's School of Music will present a piano recital at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall.   Admission is $6 for the general public, $5 for faculty-staff and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Tonnu's program will include "Rain Tree Sketch" by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu in 1982 and Takemitsu's "Rain Tree Sketch II" written 10 years later in memory of French composer Olivier Messiaen.   Then she will perform two movements from Messiaen's "Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jesus."

The program includes Fantasie in f minor, Op. 49 by Frederic Chopin and, following an intermission, Robert Schumann's "Kreisleriana Op. 16."   

Performing both solo and chamber music, Tonnu gives regular recitals throughout the United States as well as in Europe and Asia, presenting and premiering works by numerous compospers.  Since the 1990s, she has been the foremost interpreter of the piano music of Halim El-Dabh, presenting the premiere performances of many of his works. In 2002, she was one of 10 musicians selected from the U.S. to perform in Alexandria, Egypt, for the opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the Library of Alexandria).

In 2005, she presented a two-hour concert at the Opera House in Hanoi, Vietnam, performing for a group of world ambassadors.  A doctoral graduate of Stony Brook University, Tonnu has her Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Artist Diploma, respectively, from Pacific Lutheran University, the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music.