Annual Piano Showcase on tap

A top winner in the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition will be among guest artists highlighting Mississippi State's 15th annual Piano Showcase.

The June 6-11 music festival will include:

• master classes, private lessons and a workshop/lecture series for piano students and teachers in grades 9-12, and
• a series of public concerts in the McComas Hall theater.

Kasman

Yakov Kasman, silver medal winner of the 1997 Cliburn competition, is featured artist for the Gala Opening Concert that begins at 4 p.m. on the 6th. A public reception follows in the theater foyer. Tickets for the Kasman concert are $10.

An advance ticket package for all concerts also is available for $25, with individual tickets available at the door.

Kasman, who captured the silver medal in his first U.S. appearance, is "dazzling," according to showcase director Joel Harrison.

"He is, perhaps, the greatest pianist around," the MSU music education professor added.

Kasman, artist-in-residence at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, took the top prize in the 1992 Arthur Rubinstein Competition and a second-place award at the 1995 International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. In addition to presenting recitals in France and Israel, he has appeared with the Orchestra of Radio France, Athens State Orchestra and the Moscow State Orchestra.

Kasman's MSU concert will include Mussorkgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," Haydn's Sonata in G Major, Prokofiev's "Four Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75," and Stravinsky's "Trois Movements de Petrouchka."

His visit is sponsored, in part, by a grant from the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation of Jackson.

Chow

In addition to Kasman, two concerts will be presented during the week by guest artists Alan Chow and Phyllis Lehrer, who are visiting campus as Piano Showcase faculty members. They will perform with faculty members in 7:30 p.m. recitals on the 8th and 9th. Tickets are $8 for each of these events.

Chow won first prizes at the Concert Artists Guild International New York, UCLA International Piano and Palm Beach Invitational piano competitions. A Steinway artist, he is a member of the Northwestern University faculty in Evanston, Ill.

Lehrer

Lehrer is professor and head of the piano department at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. An active solo and chamber performer, she is a clinician who specializes in piano pedagogy, music medicine and performance anxiety.

Joining Harrison in performances during the week will be fellow MSU faculty colleagues Mark Applebaum, Jacqueline Edwards-Henry, Gail Levinsky, and Dylan Savage.

Piano Showcase students will present a concluding concert June 11 at 10:30 a.m. For more information, contact the Music Education Department at 325-3070.