Pianist Seth Carlin, professor of music in Arts & Sciences, will dedicate the Department of Music’s new grand piano in Graham Chapel with a concert of works by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) and Clara Schumann (1819-1896).
The concert, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. April 24.
The 9-foot grand piano — made by Steinway & Sons of Long Island City, N.Y. — is the company’s largest and the standard-size for concert performances. In addition to solo recitals, the piano will be used for chamber music performances; to accompany singers and instrumentalists in recital; and for concertos with campus ensembles, such as the Washington University Symphony Orchestra.
Carlin; Robert Snarrenberg, Ph.D., chair of the music department; and Sona Haydon, senior lecturer in piano, selected Steinway as the piano’s maker. Earlier this year, they traveled to the company’s factory with Priscilla McDonnell, whose gift to the Department of Music assisted in its purchase, to select the instrument.
The April 24 concert will feature several works by the Schumanns, whose compositions were largely written at a time when the piano was evolving from what we now call the “fortepiano” into the modern instrument. The program will include Robert Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes (1934-37) and Clara’s Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann (1853), as well as her Mazurka, op. 6, no. 5 (1836), on which Robert based his noted Davids-bündlertänze (1837).
For more information, call 935-4841.