Ithaca College’s annual Rachel S. Thaler Concert Pianist Series will bring eminent pianist Peter Serkin to campus for a free concert on Wednesday, Nov. 28. Beginning at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music, the program will offer music of Desprez, Messiaen, Bach, and Brahms.
Serkin’s rich musical heritage extends back several generations: his grandfather was violinist and composer Adolf Busch and his pianist father was Rudolf Serkin. Entering the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1958, Peter Serkin, at age 11, made his Marlboro Music Festival and New York City debuts with conductor Alexander Schneider. Soon afterward, he was invited to perform with the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell in Cleveland and Carnegie Hall, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy in Philadelphia and Carnegie Hall.
He has performed with the world’s major symphony orchestras with such eminent conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt and Christoph Eschenbach. As a dedicated chamber musician, Serkin has collaborated with Alexander Schneider, Pamela Frank, Yo-Yo Ma, and the Budapest, Guarneri and Orion String Quartets as well as TASHI, of which he was a founding member.
An avid proponent of the music of many of the 20th and 21st century’s most distinguished composers, Serkin has been instrumental in bringing the music of Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Stravinsky, Wolpe, Messiaen, Takemitsu, Henze, Berio, Wuorinen, Goehr, Knussen and Lieberson, among others, to audiences around the world. He has performed many important world premieres, in particular numerous works by Toru Takemitsu, Peter Lieberson, Oliver Knussen and Alexander Goehr, all of which were written for him.
Established in 1991 in honor of a talented pianist and longtime College supporter, the Rachel S. Thaler Concert Pianist Series has brought to the College such world-class virtuosos as Awadagin Pratt, Yefim Bronfman, Gilbert Kalish and Garrick Ohlsson. For more information about Ithaca College School of Music concerts, visit www.ithaca.edu/concerts or call (607) 274-3717.
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