Steinway Celebration at the Music Academy

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/062309_steinway_celebration_at_the_music_academy/

By Tim Dougherty

Concert features pianist Jerome Lowenthal

Internationally renowned pianist Jerome Lowenthal will celebrate the Music Academy of the West’s magnificent new Steinway Concert Grand with a special recital also featuring the Academy’s 2009 solo piano Fellows at Hahn Hall on Friday. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performance cost $40.

A total of 10 solo piano Fellows will join Lowenthal for a program of preludes representing a broad range of musical periods and styles, including compositions by Liszt, Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and others. The Academy acquired its new Steinway Concert Grand piano through the support of Hyon Chough and Bernie Sacharski.

Hahn Hall is located on the grounds of the Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road in Santa Barbara.

Lowenthal has been a prominent presence in the international piano world for more than a half-century. A student of three legendary musicians – William Kapell, Eduard Steuermann, and Alfred Cortot – he has performed a voluminous repertoire that includes 63 concerti.

Lowenthal has recorded for numerous record labels, including RCA, Columbia, and Arabesque, and has collaborated in concert with violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Nathaniel Rosen, and pianists Ronit Amir Lowenthal and Ursula Oppens. In addition to giving masterclasses in North America, Europe and Asia, he has served as a faculty member at Juilliard since 1991. The recent recipient an honorary doctorate from Cleveland Institute of Music, Lowenthal has been a member of the Music Academy faculty since 1970.

As part of its 62nd Summer Festival, the Music Academy also will present an ambitious production of Ambroise Thomas’ charming French Romantic opera Mignon, as well as performances by conductor Leonard Slatkin and pianist Christopher Taylor.

The Academy will present 197 events over the course of this year’s Summer School and Festival, which began Monday and concludes Aug. 15. Additional highlights will include performances by the Canadian Brass and the Takács Quartet, and conducting turns by Larry Rachleff, Peter Oundjian, George Manahan, Nicholas McGegan, and Alexander Mickelthwate.

The events will be presented at the academy’s Miraflores campus and in venues throughout Santa Barbara.

Click here or call 805.969.8787 for tickets and more information.

— Tim Dougherty is the communications manager for the Music Academy of the West.

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