Multi-Talented Pianist Tobin Performs at TAMIU Saturday

Take a different approach to appreciating film and music at the upcoming piano recital at Texas A&M International University Saturday, Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Recital Hall.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Classical pianist, Dr. Anthony Tobin, will perform “Debussy in Music and Image.” The program includes music by Claude Debussy and videos created by Tobin including, “The World Will Change in His Sound.”

“Tobin’s self-made videos were created as a visual accompaniment to his piano performances. His videos and his playing are both sensuous and stunning. This is truly a unique event,” said Dr. Fritz Gechter, associate professor, piano.

According to his website, Tobin’s art is inspired by the sense of place and the visual and kinetic qualities of different regions of the world leading to his experiments with photographs and HD video. He creates video art that combines mosaic, superimposed, and different aspects of motion with improvised music. The goal is to create art that reexamines the nature of motion, music, and timeline.

To compliment trips taken in 2006-2009, Tobin returns to Japan, France and Switzerland to capture video images during 2010. The current film projects are documentaries on Claude Debussy’s piano music and the contrast between “old and new” in Tokyo.

Tobin has performed across the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Brazil, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. He tours as a soloist, chamber musician and as a pianist for eurythmy, an art form that combines dance, music, poetry and lights.

He graduated from Ithaca High School in New York and was a scholarship student at Tanglewood with Anthony di Bonaventura. Tobin studied piano with Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University, and won the Junior Baldwin Piano Competition.

Tobin received a Bachelor of Music with Distinction from the Eastman School of Music with Anton Nel and played with the Eastman Wind Orchestra. He earned a Master of Music from the University of Southern California where he served as Daniel Pollack’s teaching assistant, studied piano pedagogy with Marienne Uszler, and was inducted into the music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied piano with Greg Allen, piano pedagogy with Martha Hilley, and completed a dissertation with Elliott Antokoletz that explores abstract pitch relations in Debussy piano preludes.

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

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

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