Brian Ganz – Photo by Jay Mallin
Lovers of piano music in the St. Mary’s College of MD community have two big free events to look forward to in the coming days. Musician-in-Residence Brian Ganz will offer a free PianoTalk on Tuesday, March 31 at 11:20am, and his only full length evening recital on Thursday, April 2 at 7pm.. The PianoTalk, entitled “Chopin’s Six Miniatures,” will be held in the Recital Hall of the Dodge Performing Arts Center.
The April 2 recital will be held in the Concert Hall, and will feature a free full preview of his upcoming performance at the Music Center at Strathmore on April 11,entitled “Extreme Chopin: The Finale.” For more information call (240) 895-4498.
“This is an exciting week for lovers of Chopin’s music!” pianist Ganz said. “On the Tuesday PianoTalk I will play and discuss six short works of the Romantic Master, including the short but passionate waltz that was discovered in the Morgan library and announced to the world in 2024. These are rarely heard gems and it will be great fun to introduce them to Chopin lovers in our community. Then two days later, on April 2 at 7pm, I will play my only full length evening recital of the semester, in the concert hall. This will be the complete program of the final concert in my 16-year journey through the complete works of Chopin. It is the culmination of my lifelong dream to play his complete works.”
Ganz is nearing completion of his quest to perform all of Fryderyk Chopin’s 240 works, begun in January of 2011. “Chopin’s music is the language of my soul, and I have dreamed since childhood of someday performing all of his works,” said Ganz, who is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. He is expected to be the first to perform every piece of music Chopin ever wrote.
Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic, the Baltimore and the National Symphonies, the City of London Sinfonia, and L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and has played under the baton of such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Jerzy Semkow and Yoel Levi. A critic for La Libre Belgique wrote of Ganz’s work: “We don’t have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.”
