New York based pianist Saundra Cezard is active as a recitalist, repetiteur, and educator. Having just recently returned from living abroad for the past 5 years in Paris and London, she is thrilled to be back in the states collaborating on many new projects. In July of 2019, in collaboration with American violinist Ronald Long, she presented an “England Meets America” themed concert of violin sonatas at St. Peter’s Church in London. Recently Mrs. Cezard performed a concert in Albi, France, which explored music through the ages and discussed how music has evolved through time. In November of 2019 she performed in recital alongside American-Lebanese mezzo-soprano Jessica Harika to help launch River City Opera – a new opera company and festival in Richmond, Virginia. In recent private settings in London she has performed solo and collaborative concerts of great variety spanning from classical sonatas to contemporary artists.
In December of 2013, Mrs. Cezard made her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Hall. In New York she performed new works in concert with the New York Opera Exchange in Time Square’s Old Paramount Building, in the Dramatists Guild Loewe room. While in Manhattan she performed in a two-piano production of Faust, directed by Thomas Muraco and Carol Castel. In addition to her coaching duties, she arranged and performed a two-piano reduction of the orchestral score and previously did the same for a production of Lucia di Lammermoor with Brazilian director Livia Sabag. Mrs. Cezard was regularly called on as a repetiteur for Amore Opera and the CCO.
In the summer of 2011, Mrs. Cezard accompanied Martha Guth, winner of the 2007 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition, in a Vancouver recital. She has performed the celesta in Respighi’s Trittico Botticelliano and in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, in collaboration with conductor Daniel Myssyk; her orchestral experience also includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, as well as Puccini’s Suor Angelica. While in Manhattan, she attained further expertise in conducting choral and orchestral works.
Mrs. Cezard received her bachelor’s of music in piano performance from Virginia Commonwealth University with a “Friends of Music” scholarship, where she studied with Dr. Dmitri Shteinberg. As a president’s scholarship recipient at the Manhattan School of Music she received her master’s degree in collaborative piano and vocal coaching in May of 2013, under the tutelage of Professor Thomas Muraco.
After being granted the Sorel scholarship in 2011 she attended the Vancouver International Song Institute. There she was coached and mentored by renowned singers and pianists including Dr. Arlene Shrut, Rosemarie Landry, Erika Switzer, and Francois Le Roux. During this time she learned how to approach and perform the intimate art form. Alongside singers from around the world, she performed in concerts throughout Vancouver and in the Roy Barnett Concert Hall.
Mrs. Cezard has played for the voice master classes of Thomas Hampson (broadcasted live throughout Europe), Martina Arroyo, Diana Soviero, Ubaldo Fabbri, Deen Larsen, Arlene Shrut, Rosemarie Landry, Bruno Laplante, Cameron Stowe, and Rena Sharon.