MacPhail Presents: All That I Was, I Carried Like a Candle
All That I Was, I Carried Like a Candle: Echoes of History, the Sound of Survival
A Spotlight Series piano performance by MacPhail faculty member Richard Tostenson, this program illuminates voices that refused to be extinguished in the shadow of fear and censorship.
In a time when silence was safer, these composers chose to speak. Pianist Richard Tostenson performs works by Dmitri Shostakovich and Mieczysław Weinberg—friends and fellow survivors whose music, written under Stalin’s regime, became both refuge and resistance.
Weinberg’s Piano Sonata No. 4, composed after his release from prison, and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8—heard here in a powerful transcription for solo piano—form the heart of this program: music of witness, memory, and endurance.
At once historical and deeply personal, these works reveal the courage to create when silence was safer—the sound of survival, carried forward like a candle through darkness.
About the Performer:
Richard Tostenson
Richard Tostenson holds an MM in Piano Performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He studied with Luba Edlina Dubinsky of the famed Borodin Trio, inheriting a direct connection to Shostakovich and Weinberg. He is dedicated to programming that explores music as a reflection of human experience, revealing resilience, humanity, and connection. His concert series All That I Was, I Carried Like a Candle embodies this vision. Recent solo appearances include the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Basilica of Saint Mary, Thursday Musical, MacPhail Spotlight Concerts, and A Center for the Arts in Fergus Falls. Tostenson’s students have been prize winners in competitions including Schubert Club and the Minnesota Orchestra Concerto Competition, have been featured on NPR’s From the Top, and have been accepted into top music schools across the United States and Canada. Tostenson is known for creating concerts that invite reflection and connection, revealing music’s power to speak across time.