Concert by acclaimed pianist Gregory Partain will feature three pieces, including 200th birthday tribute to Chopin; March 23, at 7:30 p.m.; free and open to the public
LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University music professor Gregory Partain will perform a solo piano recital Tuesday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Carrick Theater. The program is free and open to the public. The program will feature three works for solo piano, including an early piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata in A major, Op. 2, no. 2, one of the composer’s first published works, produced when the young man was attempting to win over Viennese audiences with his virtuosity at the keyboard; a well-known and much-loved collection of six character pieces by Franz Schubert, Moment Musicaux; and Chopin’s Sonata in B minor, in celebration of the composer’s 200th birthday. In his 23 years on the concert stage, Partain has appeared as recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist throughout the United States, and has performed overseas in Poland, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Russia, Greece and Germany. Partain soloed with the Lexington Philharmonic and Lexington Singers last spring in a performance of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. He has also appeared with the Seattle Symphony, the Eugene Symphony and the Sunriver and Peter Britt summer festival orchestras. His second solo CD, released in 2007 under the MSR Classics label, has garnered consistent critical praise. In 1986, he was the national winner of the KMS Resident Artist Competition in Seattle, then won first prize in the Memphis Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition, second prize in the International Bartok-Kabalevsky Competition in Virginia and was a finalist in the