JCC and Houston Symphony to Welcome Jeffrey Siegel for 'Keyboard Conversations'

Hailed by The New York Times as "an artist who means every note he plays," internationally renowned concert pianist Jeffrey Siegel brings Keyboard Conversations back to Houston. This three-part concert series will span the Evelyn Rubenstein JCC music season, and as collaboration between the two organizations, will preview elements of the Houston Symphony season. The concerts will take place on the Kaplan Theatre Stage at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston. This marks the fourth continuous year Siegel brings Keyboard Conversations to Houston. For the past three years, Siegel has performed at the Shepherd School at Rice University.

Primarily a concert with each work performed in its entirety, Keyboard Conversations are concerts with commentary as Mr. Siegel speaks briefly and informally to the audience before performing each composition, making the music more accessible and the listening experience more focused and meaningful. His commentary will help create connections with various concerts in the Houston Symphony's 2014-2015 Season. Each concert concludes with a lively Q & A.

"In Keyboard Conversations, I talk in non-technical language so the audience can listen actively and not passively," said Siegel. "My object is to prime the ear of listeners so they can attend symphony concerts and understand them as insiders."

The series opens with The Power and Passion of Beethoven on Sunday, October 12 at 4:00PM, which previews the Houston Symphony's forthcoming 3 Weeks of Beethoven on November 13-30. Among other insights, music lovers will be led by Siegel into an exploration of the "Moonlight Sonata" and the "Farewell Sonata" to better understand the backstory and motivations behind each work. Later, the three-part Keyboard Conversations series continues with The Romanticism of the Russian Soul: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich on Sunday, December 14, 2014, 4:00PM and Great Jewish Composers on Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 4:00 PM. These two performances preview the Houston Symphony's Mozart and Shostakovich on January 15-18, 2015, and Copland and Dvo?ák on March 12-15, 2015.

"The Houston Symphony is happy to collaborate with one of our great partners in the community, the Jewish Community Center, for the presentation of compelling pianist and commentator Jeffrey Siegel," says Symphony Executive Director/CEO Mark Hanson. "As an organization focused on connecting more and more of Houston's diverse population to the power of orchestral music, we enthusiastically encourage Houstonians to experience Jeffrey's ability to 'demystify' classical repertoire and thus better prepare themselves to be active listeners for upcoming Symphony performances."