The heart of the Canton Symphony Orchestra's (CSO) Beethoven Festival will take the stage on March 28 and 29 when the orchestra performs two concerts featuring pianist André Watts. On Saturday March 28 at 8:00pm Mr. Watts will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 and onSunday March 29 at 7:30pm, he will perform Piano Concerto No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 3. Both concerts will be performed at Umstattd Performing Arts Hall (2323 17th Street NW, Canton). CSO Music Director Gerhardt Zimmermann will conduct.
Over the course of 4 concerts in the festival - two in March and two in April - André Watts will perform all five of Beethoven's piano concerti. "Festivals like this are not uncommon," explains CSO Executive Director Michelle Mullaly, "but it is rather rare for all of the concerti performances to be done by the same artist." Watts and Zimmermann have teamed up twice for similar Beethoven series - once with the North Carolina Symphony and again with the National Symphony in Washington D.C. Their long-standing music collaborations and friendship began when Watts was the guest artist for Zimmermann's debut concert with the Canton Symphony Orchestra in 1980. "I can think of no other pianist that I would want to really 'make music' with," Zimmermann has said about Watts. "He is, in every sense of the word a true artist."Videos