Michelle Kesler, cello, and Scott Holden, piano perform several 20th-century sonatas for the instruments, including Ethel Smyth’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor op. 5, Eugene Ysaye’s Sonata for Solo Cello in C minor, op. 28, and Benjamin Britten’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 65.

Dr. Michelle Kesler, associate professor of cello at Brigham Young University, has distinguished herself as a chamber musician and soloist in performances in the U.S. and Europe and has worked with quartets such as the Orion, New Zealand String Quartet, St. Lawrence, Takacs, Tokyo, and Brentano String Quartets. She is also an active orchestral musician. She has recently taught at The Vianden International Music Festival in Luxembourg, the Montecito International Music Festival, and the Young Musician’s Music Festival held at Brigham Young University. Michelle is passionate about new music and is actively commissioning, performing, and premiering new works. She received her doctoral and master’s degrees at Arizona State University, studying with Thomas Landschoot.

Dr. Scott Holden holds music degrees from the University of Michigan, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School where he received the Horowitz Prize. Studying for a year at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is on the piano faculty at Brigham Young University and is the director of the piano area. His performances have received wide praise. “…few are the live performances which bring out, build, and shape this work as artistically as in this live performance… Mr. Holden sizzled the audience…” (The Detroit Monitor)