Friday, July 19, 2013

Pianist Thomas Otten Presents Lecture-Recital of Part II of H. Leslie Adams' Twenty-Six Etudes at Berkeley Arts Festival Saturday, July 27, 2013


H. Leslie Adams, Composer & Thomas Otten, Pianist

Berkeley Arts Festival

Saturday, July 27th 2013

The Hippest Etudes in Town

H. Leslie Adams' Twenty-Six Etudes for Solo Piano 


This lecture-recital will present Part II of living African-American composer Adams' Twenty-Six Etudes (2000-07). The fourteen etudes are classically rooted, invoking a sound world reminiscent of Rachmaninoff, while also containing strong elements of jazz/pop, thus giving them an engaging "crossover" vibe. Key technical and musical issues will be identified, along with strategies for negotiating them successfully. To close, selected etudes will be performed in their entirety.

Pianist Thomas Otten, a California native born of German-American parents, has been hailed by the New York Times as "an extremely original player who puts a formidable technique at the service of his ideas." He made his debut at age seventeen with the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center, and has performed in Australia, Europe, the Caribbean, and throughout the U.S. Dr. Otten currently chairs the piano division at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he joined the faculty in 2002. He has played at the national conventions of the Conductors' Guild, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, and the American Liszt Society. His debut CD, Tristan und Isolde: Piano Transcriptions of Franz Liszt, was released by MSR Classics in 2005.

8pm to 10pm, 2133 University Ave


The H. Leslie Adams Homepage is at: http://www.hleslieadams.com  
[H. Leslie Adams (b. 1932) is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works List by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com]

No comments: