Pianist Andrew Parr Performs Thursday

September 11, 2017

While at Yale University, composer Aaron Copland said of Andrew Parr’s performance of his Piano Variations, “…he performed the work as though he had written it himself.” This week, DePauw University School of Music is honored to present Professor Parr in performance as guest pianist on its 2017-18 Faculty Select Series at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14. The concert will take place in Thompson Recital Hall, located within the Green Center for the Performing Arts.

For his appearance at DePauw, Parr will bring to life Brahms’s symphonic Sonata in C Major, Op. 1, with its unique variations on an old German folk tune, followed by four pieces from Isaac Albeñiz’s Iberia Suite. Considered a masterpiece of piano literature, the suite’s atmospheric evocations of evenings in Spain -- complete with “the odors of flowers and brandy” -- have been praised by the likes of Claude Debussy.

“Music lovers shouldn't miss the opportunity to hear one of the most famous works in the Spanish piano repertoire [Iberia], and the youthful, exuberant Brahms Sonata No. 1, a work often overlooked due to the popularity of his famous third piano sonata,” said pianist May Phang, professor of music at DePauw. “Listeners will find the technical difficulty and rich harmonic complexity of Thursday’s program musically very gratifying.”

A native of Northeast Ohio, Parr began piano study at the age of five. He furthered his education at Kent State University, at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria (as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship), and at Yale University, where he earned both the Master's and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. Since moving to Texas in 1983 to join the faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, where he has been recognized with the College of Fine Arts’ Teaching Excellence Award, Parr has performed extensively in solo, chamber and concerto settings, both in the U.S. and abroad.

General admission tickets to the Faculty Select series are $10; tickets for seniors, children and all students are free thanks to season sponsors Judson and Joyce Green. For more information or to make online purchases, visit music.depauw.edu.

The venue’s box office is also open from noon–4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and one hour prior to each performance.

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