St. Mary’s College of Maryland artist-in-residence Brian Ganz will perform works of Frédéric Chopin in a recital on Thursday, January 6, 2011 at 8 p.m. in Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary’s Hall on the campus of St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Works to be featured include Chopin’s rarely heard Rondo in C Minor, Op. 1, the well-known Sonata No. 2 in B flat Minor (“Funeral March”), the second Scherzo, and the beloved “Heroic” Polonaise. The recital is free and open to the public.
Later in January, Ganz will kick off an enormous project in which he will perform all of the approximately 250 works of Frédéric Chopin over the course of a decade. He begins the ambitious endeavor at 8 p.m. January 22, 2011, at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland. For further information about the Strathmore recital, or to purchase tickets, visit nationalphilharmonic.org or call (301) 581-5100.
The January 6 recital will be a preview of that program. Ganz will play several pieces from the January 22 Strathmore recital program, answer questions about Chopin and about the project, and take requests for favorite Chopin works from the audience.
“Chopin’s music is the language of my soul,” said Ganz, who is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. “One of my lifelong goals has been to study every single note Chopin composed. This project gives me a lovely framework within which to reach that goal.” Ganz often performs Chopin’s works at St. Mary’s in what he calls ‘piano talks,’ where he mixes explanations of what you are about to hear with the performance.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best public liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. More than 2,000 students attend the college, nestled on the St. Mary’s River in Southern Maryland.