Duet for One: A Night of Music, Dance & Literature

On Wednesday, May 14th, at 6:30pm, novelist & critic Martha Anne Toll, pianists Amy Duran & Barbara Ciannella and dance writer Marina Harss visit the Coffee House for a night of music, dance & literature.

MARTHA ANNE TOLL, Novelist and critic

Martha Anne Toll is a novelist and literary and cultural critic. Her debut novel, Three Muses, won the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction and was shortlisted for the Gotham Book Prize. Her next novel, Duet for One, comes out in May 2025. Toll is a recipient of numerous artists' Fellowships and serves on the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. A graduate of Yale, Toll holds a B.A. Degree in Music, and her classical music training informs her artistic practice. She holds a J.D. Degree from Boston University School of Law, and comes to writing professionally after a career dedicated to social justice. Toll grew up in Philadelphia, and now lives with her climate activist husband in Washington, D.C. They are the lucky parents of two adult daughters.

MARINA HARSS, Dance writer and critic

Marina Harss is a dance writer based in New York City and Sarasota, Florida. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The Guardian, Ballet Review, Dance Europe, Tanz, Dance Magazine, and elsewhere. In 2023, her critical biography of the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, The Boy from Kyiv: Alexei Ratmansky’s Life in Ballet, was published by Farrar Straus and Giroux.

AMY DURAN, PIANIST
Amy Duran is a pianist, accompanist, and conductor. A graduate of Northwestern University, Amy spent 2 years with the Zurich Opera Studio, where she made her conducting debut. Amy served as an opera coach-conductor and accompanist to many vocal recitals around Germany, France and Switzerland. Amy has conducted on and off Broadway and has spent 16 years coaching, conducting and collaborating recitals and musicals and other projects for New Jersey City University Music Theatre Department under the leadership of Marc Dalio. She is now the music director at the Community Church of Harrington Park, New Jersey. Amy founded a duo-piano team with pianist Barbara Ciannella, and they perform in and around their community.

BARBARA CIANNELLA, PIANIST
Barbara Ciannella is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and teacher. She has worked with members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Juilliard School of Music, New York City Ballet, and elsewhere. She is on the faculty at The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York and is the Music Director of Our Lady Mother of the Church in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Ms. Ciannella has appeared as guest soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and Spain, and has made several tours to China's Hunan. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the Peabody Conservatory, and a Diploma from the Alicia de Larrocha International Course in Spanish Music, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Host or Publisher Coffee House Club