Pianist Ganz to Offer Free Concert at SMCM
Brian Ganz will perform a free Chopin concert at St. Mary’s College of Maryland on December 10. (Photo by Jay Malin)
St. Mary’s College of Maryland musician-in-residence Brian Ganz will complete his series on “Chopin’s Virtuosic Summit” at the Dodge Performing Arts Center on the college campus at 7pm December 10.
This will be pianist Ganz’s only full-length recital of the semester. He will take audience requests for favorite works of Chopin on the first half of the recital, and then, after intermission, reprise his performance of what he calls “Chopin’s Virtuosic Summit,” all 12 Etudes, Op. 25.
These are often considered to be the most difficult to perform of any of Chopin’s works.
The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call 240-895-4498 or click here.
“Chopin’s 250 or so works are almost without question the most beloved ever composed for piano,” Mr. Ganz said. “Many of them are within the technical reach of advanced amateur pianists. But about half of them are supremely demanding for even the most seasoned professionals. This year I am setting out to tackle the pinnacle of those demanding works, the 12 Etudes, or Studies, Op. 25,”
Mr. Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic, the Baltimore and the National Symphonies, the City of London Sinfonia, and L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and has played under the baton of such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Jerzy Semkow, and Yoel Levi.
Ganz will continue his quest to be the first to perform all of Chopin’s musical compositions at the Musical Center at Strathmore in Bethesda on February 24. The concert will begin at 7:30pm.
