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Internationally Acclaimed Pianist Matthew Bengston to Headline
Steinway Master Artist Series Concert
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Internationally acclaimed Steinway artist Matthew Bengston will deliver a guest performance as part of the College’s Steinway Master Artist series on Thursday, April 3, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. in the East Parlor, St. Joseph Hall.
Bengston is a concert pianist, forte pianist, and harpsichordist, who has taught and performed extensively in the United States and abroad. Critically acclaimed as a “musician’s pianist,” Bengtson has a unique combination of musical talents ranging from extraordinary pianist, to composer, analyst, and scholar of performance practice, and thus is in demand as both soloist and collaborator.
As a La Gesse Fellow, Bengston has performed in concerts in France, Italy, and Hungary, at Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia home, Monticello, and in solo recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Locally, he has performed with the Reading, Pottstown, Ridgefield and Bay-Atlantic Symphony Orchestras, and has appeared with violinist Joshua Bell on NPR’s “Performance Today” and XM Satellite Radio’s “Classical Confidential.”
Bengtson has participated in many American music festivals, such as the Aspen
Music Festival, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance (SICPP) at New England Conservatory, and the Classical Workshop and Baroque Performance Institute (BPI) at Oberlin Conservatory. In Europe, he studied at the Internationale Sommerakademie “Mozarteum” in Salzburg, Austria, the Centre Acanthes in Avignon, and at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France. In Salzburg, he performed Boulez’s Sonata no. 1 in the Wiener Saal, and was awarded the Prix de la Ville de Fontainebleau for his performances.
An advocate of both contemporary and rarely performed music, he commands a diverse repertoire, ranging from William Byrd to Berio and Ligeti. One special interest is the music of the early twentieth century, especially that of Alexander Scriabin and Karol Szymanowski. His doctoral research and first studio recording was devoted to Szymanowski’s 22 Mazurkas. His interpretation of six Scriabin Sonatas can be heard on a recent release by Roméo Records. He is also involved in an extensive recording project of early English instruments of the Charles West Wilson collection for Griffin Renaissance Records.
Bengtson studied piano performance, chamber music, and performance practice as a Harvard undergraduate, while earning a degree in computer science. He studied with Ann Schein at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, earning his M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in piano performance while minoring in the harpsichord. He has also studied fortepiano on a fellowship at Cornell University. Known as a thoughtful writer on music, he was awarded the 2003 Stefan and Wanda Wilk Prize for Research in Polish Music for his paper “The “Szymanowski Clash”: Methods of Harmonic Analysis in the Szymanowski Mazurkas.”
The Steinway Master Artist Series was introduced in 2012 at Chestnut Hill College with a performance from Steinway performance artist Meral Gϋneyman, state artist of the Republic of Turkey. In 2011, Chestnut Hill College was designated as an “All-Steinway” school.
The concert is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. For more information, please contact Sister Kathleen McCloskey, SSJ, M.M.Ed., at kmcclosk@chc.edu or call 215.248.7194.
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