Spring Piano Festival at UTC - March 2

photo Students participating in the UTC Spring Piano Festival, include, in back, from left, Roy Treiyer, Ethan McGrath, Josh Coleman, Isaac Hinchman and Aaron Chowdhurry; in front, Margaret Cooke, Lydia Hinchman, Hannah Hinchman, Abigail Hinchman and Kelsey Huffman. Other performers include Melissa Greene, Josiah Hinchman, Irina Polyakova, Stephanie Randall, Amber Snow, Terry Sanford and Allie Stafford.

IF YOU GO¦ What: UTC Spring Piano Festival.¦ Where: Roland Hayes Performance Hall, UTC Fine Arts Center, 752 Vine St.¦ Admission: Free.¦ Phone: 423-425-4601.¦ Website: www.utc.edu/music.GUEST PERFORMANCE¦ Who: Duo pianists Yakov and Aleksandra Kasman.¦ When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28.RECITAL¦ Who: Piano students, with special guests Martin Kutnowski, composer, and Tammy Benson, instructor.¦ When: 3 p.m. Sunday, March 2.

The fourth annual Spring Piano Festival at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga promises an extravaganza of talent. The schedule includes a performance by a father/daughter duo on Friday, Feb. 28, and an unusual recital with compositions that call for one to 10 hands on up to five pianos on Sunday, March 2.

Special guests are three internationally renowned artists: Van Cliburn International Piano Competition silver medalist Yakov Kasman and his daughter, Aleksandra, as well as Argentinian composer/pianist Dr. Martin Kutnowski, director of fine arts at St. Thomas University in Canada. The festival will mark the North American premiere of Kutnowski's "Five Argentinean Folk Pieces for Piano Four Hands."

Friday's performance by the Kazmans will feature Rachmaninoff's Suite for Two Pianos No. 1 and 2 and "Symphonic Dances."

The local pianists in Sunday's recital include former, current and future students of Dr. Sin-Hsing Tsai, as well as her colleagues on the UTC staff. The students are all either winners or runners-up of various music competitions.

ON THE PROGRAM

The opening piece, "Overture to William Tell," by Gioacchio Rossini, is easily recognizable as the theme music of the TV series "The Lone Ranger." It is followed by Alexander Scriabins' Prelude and Nocturne, Op. 9, Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7, Kutnowski's "Five Argentinean Folk Pieces," "Das Dreyblatt," by Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Back, and Albert Lavignac's "Galop-Marche," which is written for one piano and four players.

The second half of the program opens with Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the play and incidental music to "Peer Gynt." In this particular movement, Peer Gynt is being chased by trolls, and the five performers will use special effects to convey the adventure, action and ultimate escape.

This will be followed by Carlos Guastavino's "Tres Romances Argentinos," "Fantasy of Themes" from Bizet's "Carmen" by Mack Wilberg, "Variations on a Theme" by Paganini and Aram Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance," which has been popularized by its frequent use in movie soundtracks.

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