MARLBORO- Marlboro College’s “Music for a Sunday Afternoon” series will present a free, open to the public concert of works by Robert Schumann in Ragle Hall at 3 pm on Sunday, February 21.

A quartet consisting of Robert Merfeld (piano), Bayla Keyes (violin), Arianna Falk (cello), and Jayne West (soprano) will perform songs, sonatas, and piano trios from the canon of 19th century composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) to celebrate the bicentennial of his birth.

Merfeld was a founding member of the Apple Hill Chamber Players, with whom he toured nationally and internationally for over 20 years. He has participated in collaborative recitals throughout the United States with such artists as violinists Stanley Ritchie and Arnold Steinhardt and vocalists Dawn Upshaw and Lucy Shelton. He also has worked extensively with singers William Sharp, William Parker, and Jan DeGaetani.

Keyes is a founding member of Muir String Quartet, with whom she won the Evian and Naumburg awards and played over a thousand concerts internationally. Her first professional experience was with Music from Marlboro. She is part of the music faculty at Wellesley, teaches at Boston University College of Fine Arts, and is founding director of the String Quartet Institute at Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Falk has appeared as soloist twice before with the Columbia Symphony, including the West Coast premiere of the E.J. Moeran “Cello Concerto,” and has recently appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Olympia Symphony, Miami University Symphony, Yale Bach Society Orchestra, and Banff Festival Orchestra. As cellist of the California String Quartet, she performed at the Juilliard, Great Lakes, and Deer Valley music festivals and collaborated with cellist Paul Katz. As a member of the Yale Cellos, she performed in England, France, Korea, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and can be heard on the Naxos label on the newly-released “Cello, Celli,” includesoriginal works written for the ensemble by Dave Brubeck.

West has performed with many of the country’s leading orchestras and chamber groups, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. In addition, she has had a long-standing association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, including appearances with the orchestra both at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood. She has also performed in recital at Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall.

For more information contact the Marlboro College public relations office at (802) 251-7644 or pr@marlboro.edu. In the event of inclement weather call (802) 451-7151 for cancellation information.