Hope College will feature world-renowned pianist Jerome Lowenthal on Sunday, Jan. 17, at 2 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The inaugural performer in the new "Sundays at 2" series, Lowenthal continues to fascinate audiences, who find in his playing a youthful intensity and eloquence born of life-experience.
The creator of the new concert series, Hope faculty member Adam Clark, said that getting Lowenthal for the opening event is exactly how the college's department of music wanted to start the series.
"We are extremely excited to have an artist of Mr. Lowenthal's stature and reputation coming in for this special event," said Clark, an assistant professor of music. "He has been a pivotal figure in the lives of many notable pianists and incredibly influential as an artist and pedagogue throughout his long and distinguished career."
Lowenthal studied in his native Philadelphia, Pa., with Olga Samaroff-Stokowski, in New York with William Kapell and Edward Steuermann, and in Paris with Alfred Cortot, meanwhile traveling annually to Los Angeles for coaching with Artur Rubinstein. After winning prizes in three international competitions (Bolzano, Darmstadt, and Brussels), he moved to Jerusalem where, for three years, he played, taught and lectured.
Returning to America, he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic playing Bartok's "Concerto No. 2" in 1963. Since then, he has performed in locations ranging from the Aleutians to Zagreb. He has recently recorded the Beethoven Fourth Concerto with cadenzas by 11 different composers. His other recordings include concerti by Tchaikovsky and Liszt, solo works by Sinding and Bartok, and chamber-music by Arensky and Taneyev.
Teaching, too, is an important part of Lowenthal's musical life. For 18 years at the JuilliardSchool and for 39 summers at the Music Academy of the West, he has worked with a large number of gifted pianists, whom he encourages to understand the music they play in a wide aesthetic and cultural perspective and to project it with freedom which that perspective allows.
The new "Sundays at 2" concert series will feature Hope College faculty and distinguished guest artists throughout the academic year.
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Ave., on College Avenue at 12th Street.