En Vivo Concert Series: Duo Karudan, clarinet and piano

Duo Karudan—featuring husband-wife duo Christopher Ayer, clarinet, and Kae Hosoda-Ayer, piano—will present a recital of works for clarinet and piano. The program includes Weber’s masterful Grand Duo Concertante as well as works by living composers Martin Rokeach, Maria Grenfell, and Jeff Scott.

Dr. Christopher Ayer, a native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and a graduate of Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada, is an active performing artist and educator having taught clarinet at the college level for the past 29 years-25 at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas where he is Professor of Clarinet. Over the past fifteen years he has presented clinics at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference, the Texas Bandmasters Association Conference, and the Midwest Clinic, as well as performing at the International Clarinet Association’s annual ClarinetFest multiple times. Dr. Ayer’s performances and master classes over that time have taken him to Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and across the United States. With his wife, Kae Hosoda-Ayer, he performs chamber recitals as Duo Karudan. He holds graduate degrees in clarinet performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Dr. Ayer is a Yamaha Artist and performs exclusively on the CSVR-ASP B-flat and A clarinets.

Dr. Kae Hosoda-Ayer is Associate Professor of Piano and Coordinator of Collaborative Piano at Baylor University. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance with emphasis in chamber music and collaborative arts from the University of Texas at Austin; a Master of Music degree and Graduate Diploma in piano performance from New England Conservatory where she was a Piano Honors Competition winner; and a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Toho Gakuen School of Music, Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Ayer has concertized throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Italy, where she is in demand both as a soloist and collaborative pianist. She has been heard on National Public Radio with Ronald de Kant, former Professor of Clarinet at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. Her performances are available on the Centaur, MSR, Potenza, and MarkCustom recording labels, and her CD of Franz Schmidt’s Quintet in A major for Piano left -hand has received glowing reviews from GramophoneMagazine