WILSON, N.C. — April 24, 2017 — Acclaimed pianist Solomon Eichner will join the Barton College/Wilson Symphony Orchestra for its Spring Concert on Sunday, April 30. The concert will be held at 3 p.m. in the Kennedy Family Theatre on the Barton campus. Mark N. Peterson, director of music at Barton College, will be conducting.
Originally from Baltimore, Md., Eichner completed a Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music studying with Arkady Aronov, and he earned a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory, studying with Alexander Shtarkman. Eichner recently received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of South Carolina, where he also held a position as staff accompanist under a full scholarship. Eichner looks forward to moving to the Raleigh area later this year.
“I met Solomon through professional connections and through social media,” shared Peterson. “I noted the list of accomplishments that this young pianist has achieved and was also impressed with his numerous YouTube videos. Mr. Eichner has won numerous prizes at prestigious international piano competitions, and the fact that he actively peruses entry in these ultra-stressful competitions is a good indication that he not only has nerves of steel, but is on the very top of his game.”
The orchestra will perform a program of romantic era classics featuring Eichner playing Franz Liszt’s spectacular “Piano Concerto No. 1.” After retiring from performing, Liszt enjoyed a more settled existence that allowed him to focus on composing, and on making the German city of Weimar the center of progressive musical Europe. He produced a steady stream of masterworks, beginning in the late 1840s. Among these was the first of his two Piano Concertos. Liszt composed his “Piano Concerto No. 1” over a 26-year period. The main themes date from 1830, while the final version is dated 1849. The concerto, consisting of four movements, was premiered in Weimar on February 17, 1855, with Liszt at the piano and Hector Berlioz conducting. Liszt made yet more changes before publication in 1856. The first United States performance came 10 years later on December 2, 1865, with Theodore Thomas’s Symphony Soirée at Irving Hall in New York and Sebastian Bach Mills playing the solo part.
The orchestra will also be performing two works by Felix Mendelssohn: “The Hebrides Overture,” which Mendelssohn wrote to describe his memorable visit it Fingal’s Cave in Scotland, and his stirring “War March of the Priests.”
Following the concert, the audience is cordially invited to meet the musicians at a reception, hosted by ARAMARK Higher Education, in the Bridgestone Americas Atrium of the Kennedy Family Theatre.
Admission for the fall orchestra performance will be $10 at the door or by season ticket. All students within the community will be admitted free of charge as well as faculty, staff and students of Barton College. For additional information, please contact Luann Clark at (252) 399-6329 or lwclark@barton.edu.
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