Hope College will feature pianist and composer Spencer Myer in performance on Tuesday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Myer has just been selected to be part of the highly competitive 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which is held every four years. His performance at HopeCollege will include works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Aaron Copland and Carl Vine.
In 2004, Myer captured First Prize in the 10th UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as special prizes for the best performances of Bach, the commissioned work, the semifinal round recital, and both concerto prizes in the final round. He is also a laureate in the 2007 William Kapell, 2005 Cleveland, 2005 Busoni (where he was also awarded the Audience Prize), 2004 Montréal and 2003 New Orleans International Piano Competitions. Winner of the 2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association, Myer also received both of the competition's special prizes in Chamber Music and Lieder Accompanying.
An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians, Myer has been a frequent guest artist at workshops for students and teachers. He is also an advocate of contemporary music and inter-arts collaboration, and has worked with the Chicago- and New York-based ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Indianapolis' Dance Kaleidoscope, Ohio Dance Theatre, and New York City's New Triad for Collaborative Arts and The Juilliard School's "Composers and Choreographers" series.
Myer is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin. Other teachers include Peter Takács, Joseph Schwartz and Christina Dahl. He spent two summers at the MusicAcademy of the West, studying with Jerome Lowenthal. During the course of his undergraduate studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he was the recipient of numerous awards from that institution, while, in 2000, he was named a recipient of a four-year Jacob K. Javits Memorial Fellowship from the United States Department of Education. His Doctor of Musical Arts degree was conferred by StonyBrookUniversity in 2005.
Myer can be heard on the Dimension Records label, performing music of the late Cleveland composer Frederick Koch and on a composer-conducted Naxos CD in performances of three concerti from Huang Ruo's Chamber Concerto Cycle. His debut CD for harmonia mundi usa, featuring music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Kohs, was released in the fall of 2007.
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Ave., on College Avenue at 12th Street.