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Category Archives: Member News & Concerts
OSU Presents Pianist Andrew Focks
OSU – SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Pianist Andrew Focks
Friday, March 27 • Master class 2:30 p.m. / Guest recital 8 p.m.
Hughes Hall Auditorium
Program
- Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 – J.S. Bach / arr. Busoni
- Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata” – Beethoven
- Danse Macabre, Op. 40/S. 555 – Saint-Saëns / arr. Liszt
- Vallée d’Obermann from Années de Pèlerinage I (Suisse) – Liszt
A frequent master class clinician, Dr. Focks regularly sits on the juries of competitions and teaches at summer academies both in the United States and abroad. Additionally, he presents lectures at music conferences, including the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. He is the 2020 President-Elect of the Ohio Music Teachers Association, where he currently serves as a vice president, and is also President of the Northeast Ohio Music Teachers Association. He has served on multiple arts committees and as chair for state music conferences. His article “A Conversation with Robert Levin” was the featured cover story of Clavier Companion (July/August 2016). Focks is a member of the piano faculty at Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory & Continuing Education Division. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Rice University and Florida State University, his studies were further supplemented at academies throughout the world, including many summers at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg, Austria. During his education he performed for several of today’s leading pianists including Andras Schiff and Richard Goode. His pre-college music education was nurtured and developed at the New England Conservatory of Music. His mentors have included Arnaldo Cohen, Ya-Fei Chuang, Jon Kimura Parker, Robert Levin and Daniel Shapiro.
Andrew Focks continues to garner worldwide acclaim for the breathtaking intensity and freedom of his performances, combining brilliant virtuosity with profound depth and introspection. Jon Kimura Parker states, “Andrew Focks is not only a superb pianist, but an engaging, articulate, and creative musician. He is just what we need in the music world today: a born communicator!”
An award-winning pianist, Andrew Focks has performed as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician in venues internationally throughout Hungary, Italy, Austria, Germany, England and China. Within the United States he has appeared in cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Tampa, Albuquerque, San Jose, Sarasota, Miami, Naples, among others. He has made successful solo debuts in concert halls around the world, including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and has been broadcasted on television and radio. His command of an unusually vast repertoire has led to collaborations with a myriad of artists, most recently including members of the Cleveland Orchestra and Grand Rapids Symphony.
Greatly in demand as a teacher, Andrew Focks’ students have performed in venues including Millennium Park (Chicago), Severance Hall (Cleveland), Carnegie Hall (New York), Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles), Olympiahalle (Munich), Barclaycard Arena (Hamburg), The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), the White House and more. The students continue to be frequent scholarship recipients and competition prizewinners at the regional, national and international levels.
Boris Berman recital – Feb. 3
The School of Music at Ohio State invites you to campus for a recital by guest artist Boris Berman, The Sylvia and Leonard Marx Professor in the Practice of Piano at Yale University.
Guest artist: Boris Berman, piano
Monday, February 3 • 8 p.m.
Hughes Hall Auditorium, 1899 College Rd.
This event is free and open to the public. No ticket required.
PROGRAM
Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A major, D. 959
Works by Frederic Chopin: Barcarolle, eight Mazurkas (Op. 30 and Op. 33), two Nocturnes (Op. 27) and the Polonaise–Fantaisie.
Boris Berman regularly performs in more than fifty countries on six continents. His highly acclaimed performances have included appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, The Philharmonia (London), the Toronto Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish Orchestra. A frequent performer on major recital series, he has also appeared in many important festivals.
Born in Moscow, Berman studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the distinguished pianist Lev Oborin. In 1973, he left a flourishing career in the Soviet Union to immigrate to Israel where he quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after keyboard performers. He currently resides in New Haven, USA.
A teacher of international stature, Berman heads the piano department of the Yale School of Music and conducts master classes throughout the world. He has been named a Honorary Professor of Shanghai Conservatory, of the Danish Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen, and of China Conservatory in Beijing. He is frequently invited to join juries of various international competitions.
A Grammy nominee, Berman has recorded all solo piano works by Prokofiev and Schnittke; the complete sonatas of Scriabin; works by Mozart, Weber, Schumann, Brahms, Franck, Shostakovich, Debussy, Stravinsky, Berio, Cage and Joplin. Most recently, the French label Le Palais des Degustateurs released Berman’s recording of Brahms’ Klavierstücke.
In 2000, the prestigious Yale University Press published Professor Berman’s Notes from the Pianist’s Bench, in which he explores issues of piano technique and music interpretation. The book has been translated to several languages. In 2017, Yale University Press published a revision of this book, electronically enhanced with audio and video components. In 2008, Yale University Press published Berman’s Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer. Berman has also served as an editor of the new critical edition of Piano Sonatas by Prokofiev (Shanghai Music Publishing House).
In 2019–20, Professor Berman is performing and teaching in Austria, China, Holland, Israel, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.
VISITING CAMPUS
Many School of Music performances will be held in Hughes Hall Auditorium while construction to Weigel Hall continues through December 2021. Hughes Auditorium accommodates a smaller audience and allows entry only during applause. Please plan ahead.
Note that the accessible entrance is located at the North end of the building. For evening and weekend performances, the closest parking is in Arps Garage.
A new home for the School of Music
The transformative Ohio State Arts District project includes a renovated and expanded School of Music. This new facility is an investment in our future performers, music educators, conductors and scholars. To learn more, visit go.osu.edu/artsdistrict.