Piano Concert Next Weekend Will Be Part Of Tercentennial Celebration

In celebration of Newtown’s Tercentennial, the Trustees of the Heritage Preservation Trust of Newtown, Inc. (which supports the Newtown Meeting House) invite the public to a special free concert featuring the award-winning pianist Ryo Yanagitani. The concert will include works of Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Franck, Ginastera, Liszt and Rachmaninov.

The concert is scheduled for Sunday, May 1, at 3 pm. It will be at Newtown Meeting House, at 31 Main Street.

Mr Yanagitani will announce his own musical selections from the stage, sprinkled with anecdotal information about the composers and their music.

While admission is free, space is limited at the meeting house so organizers are requesting advance reservations.

The pianist, a native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, born in 1978, had his first piano lesson at age seven. An enthusiastic student from a non-musical family, he graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance, and was twice endowed by the Canadian Arts Council with their Grants for Emerging Artists.

Additionally, Mr Yanagitani won first prize at the Second Pacific Piano Competition, is a national winner of the Canadian Music Competition and grand prize winner of the Shean Competition.

On several occasions, his performances have been broadcast on both Canadian National Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Mr Yanagitani has also collaborated in a wide range of chamber music, from the duo sonata repertoire to large ensembles.

Mr Yanagitani has performed in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland, and was awarded the prize for the Artist of Special Promise at the Third International Calgary Ester Honens Competition. He has made concert appearances with the Vancouver Symphony, the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, the University of British Columbia Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and as soloist at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

He was awarded an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2002, is currently a graduate student of Boris Berman at Yale University and also teaches privately.

Mr Yanagitani is a self-assured, yet unassuming, young person – until he begins to play. Then the fireworks start.

He has fingers and nerves of steel and instantly alters his tone as the music demands. This young man is on an upward trajectory as a concert artist and the audience genuinely feels that they are witnessing the emergence of a major talent.

This performance will be especially interesting to students and enthusiasts of all ages.

“We’re really encouraging students to come to this performance,” Sherry Paisley, a member of the Heritage Preservation Trust, said recently. “He’s just an absolute genius, and sometimes kids can really relate to someone like this.”

Guests will be invited to a post-concert reception to meet and speak with the talented young guest artist.

To make reservations and/or obtain more information, contact Sherry Paisley at 270-8293 or   nmh1792@hotmail.com.