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Internationally acclaimed pianist Horacio Gutiérrez will present works by Liszt, Schumann, Alban Berg, as well as a piece dedicated to him by George Perle 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, at the Williams Center for the Arts.
Tickets cost $4 with Lafayette ID and $18 for the public. They may be ordered by calling the box office at 610-330-5009.
The concert originally was scheduled for Sept. 5; tickets purchased for that date will be honored at this month’s performance.
The program will open with Sonata No. 1 by Berg (1885-1935), followed by Perle’s “Nine Bagatelles,” written and dedicated to Gutiérrez in 1999. Next will be Schumann’s Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17. After intermission, Gutiérrez will perform Sonata in b minor by Liszt.
The Cuban-born and Juilliard-trained Gutiérrez ranks among the premier pianists of his generation, acclaimed throughout the world for performances with major orchestras and in recital. He is consistently praised by critics and audiences alike for the poetic insight and technical mastery he brings to a diverse repertoire. Since his professional debut in 1970 with Zubin Mehta and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gutiérrez has appeared regularly with the world’s greatest orchestras and on major recital series.
In addition to his annual summer festival appearances, including Tanglewood, Blossom, and Chautauqua, recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Seattle, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Montreal Symphonies, and the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras. In recent seasons, Gutiérrez has given recitals at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and New York’s Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, as well as in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Cleveland. He also toured Japan with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra and has appeared with Lorin Maazel and Bavarian Radio Orchestra in performances of the two Brahms piano concertos.
A frequent soloist at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Gutiérrez has appeared on its season-opening “Live from Lincoln Center” telecast. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Guarnieri, Tokyo, and Cleveland quartets as well as Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 1982, he received the Avery Fisher Prize.
Gutiérrez’ Telarc recordings include Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with Lorin Maazel and the Pittsburgh Symphony, nominated for a Grammy Award. Also available on that label are separate discs of the two Brahms Concertos, both with Andre Previn and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini” with David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony. For the Chandos label he has recorded Prokofiev’s Concertos No. 2 and 3 with Neeme Jarvi and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. His television performances in Great Britain, the United States and France have been widely acclaimed, and won him an Emmy Award for his fourth appearance with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He also has appeared several times on “The Tonight Show.” A great film and theater fan, he has performed in recital with Irene Worth and Mariette Hartley.
Born in Havana, Gutiérrez appeared at age 11 as guest soloist with Havana Symphony. He became an American citizen in 1967 and resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Patricia Asher.
The nationally recognized Performance Series attracts more than 10,000 people each season. It has been cited for performing excellence by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, Chamber Music America, Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund, Pennsylvania Arts and Humanities Councils, and Association of Performing Arts Presenters.
The 2002-03 Performance Series at Lafayette College is supported in part by gifts from Friends of the Williams Center for the Arts; by the F.M. Kirby Foundation; by provisions of the Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence Program, the James Bradley Fund, and the Ed Brunswick Jazz Fund; and by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, and New England Foundation for the Arts.