Ward Virts Concerts Kick Off Oct. 9
The 2016-2017 Ward Virts Concert Series kicks off at 3 pm Oct. 9, 2016, with classical pianist Brian Ganz at the College of Southern Maryland Prince Frederick Campus at 115 J. W. Williams Road in the Multipurpose Room 104 of Building B.
Mr. Ganz’s performance is the season opener for six concerts this season, and is a memorial concert dedicated to the series’ namesake Ward Virts, a talented Southern Maryland pianist who died unexpectedly in 1993.
“For more than a decade, the Ward Virts Concert Series at CSM’s Prince Frederick Campus has hosted free performances by regional and national world-class artists and groups. Every performance features our concert grand Bösendorfer piano which was donated to the campus by the friends of Ward Virts,” said Dr. Richard Fleming, vice president and dean of the Prince Frederick Campus. “This is truly a wonderful opportunity for residents to experience musical performances in a local setting and at no cost.”
Several of Virts’ friends and classmates came up with the Ward Virts Piano Project to bring the love of life, beauty, and music that Ward embodied to a new generation of Southern Maryland students, performers, and audiences.
Mr. Ganz has performed in the series since it began.
Mr. Ganz is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. A graduate of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, he has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic of Russia, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, the National Philharmonic, the City of London Sinfonia and L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.
Ganz is on the piano faculty at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he is an artist-in-residence, and is a member of the piano faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. He is the artist-editor of the Schirmer Performance Edition of Chopin’s Preludes (2005).
The Ward Virts Concert Series is presented by sponsors Dr. and Mrs. Henry Virts, Edward and Patricia Mehosky, Mary Anna Phillips, Nancy Powell Hempstead in memory of Roger Powell, Stovy and Anne Brown, and the CSM Foundation. Grants from the Arts Council of Calvert County and the Maryland State Arts Council also make the performances possible.
Admission to the concert is free, and seating is open but limited. No tickets or reservations are needed.
All performances begin at 3 pm; doors open at 2:30 pm. For information, call 443-550-6011, email [email protected] or visit here.
The complete schedule for the 2016-17 Ward Virts series is Brian Ganz (piano), Oct. 9; Jacques Wieciech (countertenor), Nov. 13; Michael Adcock (piano), Feb. 12; The Eric Byrd Trio (jazz), March 12; Hannah Baslee (mezzo-soprano), April 9; and Ara Gregorian, (violin) May 14.
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