By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
A free series of concerts spotlighting young performers and a new collection of pianos will kick off Tuesday.
The Young Artist Piano Series will open with a performance by Diego Caetano, AC assistant professor of music, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the AC Concert Hall Theatre on the Washington Street campus. Admission is free.
Caetano will perform works by Brazilian composers Heitor Villa-Lobos to celebrate what would have been his 130th birthday and Francisco Mignone in the concert's first half. In the second half, Caetano will perform the complete ballades by Frédéric Chopin, four one-movement pieces considered to be among the most challenging ever written for solo piano.
AC began refreshing its aging fleet of pianos this summer with the acquisition of two Shigeru series grand pianos from Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co. this summer, complementing the 2015 purchase of a restored 1918 Steinway grand piano.
“There are not a lot of piano series dedicated to young and up-and-coming students, so I decided to create one, especially now that we have these beautiful, top-of-the-line pianos," Caetano said in a news release.
“To launch this series, I’ve invited some of my friends from around the world,” he said, “but I hope in the years ahead to see this grow to where we can accept proposals from young pianists all over the world. I also hope to open it to our alumni, and of course it will always include performance opportunities for our own students.”
The series also will include:
- Nov. 7: Bernardo Santos of Portugal and the University of Aveiro
- Nov. 16: AC piano student recital
- Feb. 26: Chi-Kit Lam of Hong Kong
- April 2: Lucy Tan, artist-in-residence at Oklahoma Panhandle State University
- April 12: AC piano student recital
- April 26: Jaime Santillan, an AC sophomore who won honorable mention in the 2017 Salzburg International Music Competition
Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. The student recitals begin at 2 p.m. Admission is free, and each will be held in the Concert Hall Theatre.
Call 806-371-5350.
