Earlier this year, representatives of the Performing Arts Center and the Hugh Hodgson School of Music traveled to Hamburg, Germany to select a new Steinway grand piano. It will be inaugurated Thursday, Oct. 12 at 7:30 in a free (tickets required) Hodgson Concert Hall recital by young English virtuoso Isata Kanneh-Mason. Preceding the concert is a lecture by Fred Child, host of Performance Today, the most popular classical music radio program in the U.S., heard locally weekday mornings on WUGA FM.

Kanneh-Mason, from a large family of musicians, is in great demand internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She offers eclectic and interesting repertoire with recital programs encompassing music from Haydn and Mozart via Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, Chopin and Brahms to Gershwin and beyond. In concertos, she is equally at home in Felix Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann (whose piano concerto featured on Isata’s chart-topping debut recording) as in Prokofiev and Dohnányi.

Highlights of her 2023-’24 season include performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa, London Mozart Players, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on tour in the U.S. and Germany, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, and Stockholm Philharmonic. With her cellist brother Sheku, she appears in recital in Japan, Singapore, and South Korea in addition to an extensive European recital tour. Isata also gives a series of solo recitals on tour in the USA and Canada as well as at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Lucerne Festival, and across Germany.

Since 2000, Child has been the host of APM’s Performance Today. He is also the commentator and announcer for Live From Lincoln Center, the only live performing arts series on U.S. television. He hosts musical events on stages around the country, working with major orchestras and festivals, and connecting with audiences coast to coast.

Kanneh-Mason’s recital is but one event in the UGA Presents Year of the Piano. Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau performs a solo recital Feb. 4, Marc-Andre Hamelin appears with the Takacs Quartet March 24, and classical superstar Lang Lang plays a solo recital April 27.

ARTIST IN FOCUS

This season, UGA Presents welcomes its first Artist in Focus, Isata Kanneh-Mason. This dynamic young musician will return Jan. 29 with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which she has served as Artist in Residence.

PROGRAM

Haydn: Piano Sonata No. 60 in C major, Hob. XVI/50
Fanny Mendelssohn: Easter Sonata
Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15
Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58

PERFORMANCE TALK

Join us for a free pre-performance talk by Fred Child in Ramsey Concert Hall from 6:30-7:15 p.m. His appearance is part of the UGA Signature Lecture series.

SUPPORTED BY

Ms. Gloria Coile Wells
Murray and Dorris Tillman
Dr. Janice Simon

 

THREE WAYS TO ORDER TICKETS

1. Purchase tickets online 24/7 online here.
2. Call the Performing Arts Center Box Office at (706) 542-4400, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
3. Visit the UGA Performing Arts Center Box Office, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (5 minute parking is available in the drop off circle at the Performing Arts Center for purchasing or picking up tickets.)

 

Photo: Robin Clewley