Carl Broman Concert Series Opens with Pianist Yael Weiss

The Mary Baldwin University Music Department is excited to announce this season’s opening Carl Broman Concert, featuring the award-winning pianist Yael Weiss, at 8 p.m. on October 27 in Francis Auditorium on the Mary Baldwin University campus.

Many concert-goers are already familiar with Weiss’s compelling performances: as a faculty member of the Heifetz International Music Institute, she performs during the summer Celebrity Series. She is known for her visionary interpretations of surpassing depth, immediacy, and communicative power. Her discography encompasses piano works by more than a dozen composers, and her special projects include performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas.

Her program on October 27 reflects this passion for Beethoven, and she will perform Beethoven’s Pastoral sonata, op. 28, along with the great Appassionata sonata in F Minor, op. 57. In addition, she will play two recent works she has commissioned: Lera Auerbach’s Ludwig’s Nightmare and the world premiere of Joel Feigin’s Prelude to a Sonata. Also on the program is Chopin’s very beautiful Barcarolle.

“We are thrilled to be presenting Yael Weiss on the Broman Concert Series,” says Lise Keiter, professor of music at Mary Baldwin. “And her program is so inventive; just to hear her perform these great works of Beethoven would be exciting enough. But then with each of these new works she has commissioned, she asked the composer to write a piece that would pair with a specific Beethoven sonata. It’s such a creative idea.”

Weiss has performed across the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and South America at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Moscow’s Bolshoi Hall, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Her New York recital debut, presented by the Metropolitan Museum, was acclaimed by the New York Times as, “remarkably powerful and intense … fine technique and musicianship in the service of an arresting array of music.” She has appeared as a soloist with many international orchestras and is also devoted to chamber music, touring worldwide with violinist Mark Kaplan and cellist Peter Stumpf as the Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio. She is also in demand at international music festivals, such as Marlboro, Ravinia, City of London, Banff, and the Seattle Chamber Music Festival.

The second Broman Concert of the season will feature the brilliant young Armenian clarinetist Narek Arutyunian on November 10. The series concludes on March 23, 2015 with the award-winning Ariel Quartet, an exceptional young string quartet praised for their effortless communication, brilliant playing, soulful interpretations, and youthful passion.

Tickets for Yael Weiss’s concert may be purchased at the door and are $25 for the general public, $20 for seniors, and $5 students (Mary Baldwin students are free). For more information call 540-887-7294 or visit the website.