Classical Pianist Brian Ganz Will Perform Chopin and Beethoven in Bethesda

Pianist Brian Ganz, well-known to Washington, D.C. audiences for his interpretations of the music of the great Romantic composer Fryderyk Chopin, will present a recital of works by Chopin and Beethoven at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, located in Bethesda, MD at 6601 Bradley Boulevard. The recital will take place on Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. on the church's beautiful and recently rebuilt 1904 Steinway B piano. For more information and to purchase tickets ($10- $35) visit https://www.bradleyhillschurch.org/concerts/. 

"I am extremely excited to return to Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church," pianist Ganz said recently. "My first live recital after the pandemic was at this gorgeous church on this wonderful piano, and it was a joyous revelation for me, a reminder of just how meaningful live performance is, both to me and to audiences too. On that recital I played Beethoven's 'Pathétique' Sonata, so it feels just right to be returning with his great 'Appassionata' Sonata for this recital. I'll play some of my favorite works of Chopin as well: his masterful Ballade No. 1, three intimate and lovely mazurkas and two magisterial polonaises, including the greatest of them all, the 'Heroic' Polonaise, Op. 53. The ballade is not only my favorite work of Chopin; it was also his favorite of his own works! I like to say it's the piece with which Chopin 'wounded' me when I was a boy: It was simply too beautiful for me to comprehend, so beautiful that it hurt. It was a big part of why I wanted to become a musician." 

Ganz will perform the second concert of Bradley Hills Presents’ 2024-25 concert season, a season that features the Yale Whiffenpoofs, organist Ken Cowan, Irish tenor Emmett Cahill, and more. The Bradley Hills Presents concert series was first created under the tenure of Donald S. Sutherland, Director of Music from 1971 to 1999. From 1972 to now, “Bradley Hills Presents” offers world-class concerts, featuring many famous musicians: the American Boy Choir, Anonymous 4, Marie-Claire Alain, William Albright, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, David Craighead, Leon Fleisher, Brian Ganz, Denyce Graves, Judith and Gerre Hancock, Susan Landale, André Marchal, the National Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet, The Thirteen, Martin Neary, Louis Robilliard, Ned Rorem, Albert Russell, Larry Smith, Donald S. Sutherland, Vernon de Tar, the Theatre Chamber Players, and Dame Gillian Weir. Bradley Hills Presents is an important means of connecting with the wider musical community, a source of mission and social outreach. The mission of Concerts at Bradley Hills is to provide world-class musical events in a wonderful acoustic setting, thereby sharing the joy of music with the public as a living ministry.

Ganz has shared First Grand Prize in the Marguerite Long Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition and won a silver medal in the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Competition. He has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the City of London Sinfonia and Paris’s L’Orchestre Lamoureux and under the direction of conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Mstislav Rostropovich. He is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Leon Fleisher. Earlier teachers include Ylda Novik and Claire Deene.

Gifted as a teacher himself, Ganz is on the piano faculty of St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he is artist-in-residence, and until recently, was a member of the piano faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. He is the artist-editor of the Schirmer Performance Edition of Chopin’s Preludes (2005). Recent performance highlights include Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Alba Music Festival in Italy and with The National Philharmonic at Strathmore, Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 466 with the Virginia Chamber Orchestra and the Annapolis Symphony, and a solo recital for the Distinguished Artists Series of Santa Cruz, California. Ganz has also been a member of the jury of the Long Thibaud Competition in Paris.

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