TAMIU, Area Pianists Celebrate Chopin’s Bicentennial Feb. 27

Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) passed away more than 160 years ago, but his music still moves audiences and inspires pianists. Texas A&M International University’s College of Arts and Sciences, department of Fine and Performing Arts plans to celebrate Chopin’s life and legacy with “1810 – 2010 Chopin Bicentennial Piano Recital: Featuring Laredo-area Piano Students and their Instructors” Saturday, Feb. 27 at 3 p.m. in the TAMIU Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Theatre.

Admission is free and open to the public.

A special recognition will also be given to the Fernando A. Salinas Trust for its generous gift to the Steinway Series.

Recital performers include area instructors: Rebecca Anderson; Dr. Mary Grace Carroll, Vidal M. Treviño School of Communications and Fine Arts, director, piano studies; Dr. Fritz C. Gechter, TAMIU, associate professor, piano; Dr. Mikolaj Gorecki, Laredo Community College, piano; Dr. Susan Liu, LCC, professor, piano.

Other performers include instructors’ students.

Chopin was born near Warsaw in 1810 to a French émigré and a Polish mother. He moved to Paris and established himself as a pianist and a piano instructor.

According to the Naxos (classical music label) Web site, “His compositions, principally for the piano, make a remarkable use of the newly developed instrument, exploring its poetic possibilities while generally avoiding the more obvious ostentation of the Paris School of performers.

“Chopin created or developed a number of new forms of piano music, vehicles for his own poetic use of the instrument, with its exploration of nuance, its original harmonies and its discreet but often considerable technical demands. He used the popular form of the Waltz in a score of such compositions, of which the so-called Minute Waltz is probably the best known of many of almost equal familiarity. The Polish dance, the Polonaise, elevated from village to ball-room, provided the basis of another characteristic form, in 16 such works, written between 1817, when Chopin was seven, and 1846.”

Chopin passed away at the age of 39 from tuberculosis.

For more information, please contact Dr. Gechter at 326.2639 or fgechter@tamiu.edu.

For a calendar of upcoming arts events, visit tamiu.edu/coas/fpa/coe.shtml or call 326-ARTS (2787) for a recording of upcoming events.

Additional information is also available @txamiu on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu