September 28, 2006

James Johnston, chair of the Antioch College Music Department, played the concert grand piano that will be used in the piano concert series Antioch is hosting this year.

By Lauren Heaton

The lonely days of the Steinway concert grand piano at Antioch College will end this year when three world-class soloists come to town to cajole its hammers and strings back into melodious action. Thanks to a grant from the Adams Foundation of New York City, Antioch and Chamber Music Yellow Springs will launch a new concert series featuring seasoned and emerging pianists who will perform in Kelly Hall on three Mondays in October, January and April.

James Johnston, chair of the Antioch College music department, welcomes everyone from Yellow Springs and the Antioch community to enjoy the concert events.

“These are all performers with long careers in their early 40s to their early 70s who bring a huge breadth of musical experience with them,” he said.

Peabody Institute master teacher Ann Schein will open the series on Oct. 16 with a performance anchored by the Romantic swooning of Ravel, Debussy, Liszt and Chopin. According to Chamber Music Yellow Springs president Jeff Huntington, Schein is a “pianist’s pianist,” whose performances all students of piano should hear.

“Undiscovered” artist Andreas Klein will begin the new year on Jan. 22 with a concert heavy with classical-period composers Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven. Klein, a Juilliard graduate from Germany, is “young and full of fire,” Huntington said.

A very rare performance on two pianos by identical twin brothers John and Richard Contiguglia will end this year’s series on April 16. The twins have given four-hand performances since the age of five and are “like one mind in two skulls,” Huntington said. At Antioch they will play serious pieces by Schumann, Debussy and Percy Grainger, composed specifically for two pianos. While Antioch only has one suitable piano, the Adams Foundation has agreed to rent a second Steinway grand and hire a double moving crew to haul it up the front stairs of Kelly Hall for the duet performance.

Connections among Antioch, Yellow Springs and the outside world sparked the series this summer when Chamber Music Yellow Springs learned of the Adams Foundation, whose mission is to bring professional piano concerts to small communities and foster appreciation for the piano as a performance instrument.

The foundation covers the artists’ fees, travel and lodging expenses, and the local sponsors provide a venue and a suitable instrument. Antioch’s Steinway Concert & Artist model “D” is in an elite class of pianos, Huntington said. It was purchased by Antioch under the direction of former music department director Walter Anderson in 1962, and though it has not been used much in the past several years, the Yellow Springs and Antioch communities raised over $1,200 this summer to tighten its action and return it to performance-ready state. Funds raised in addition to that will be used for other Antioch music department needs.

“It has a noble sonority, a really big, rich sound,” Huntington said. “It’s the top of the line for Steinways, and it is worth fixing.”

With Antioch’s piano restored, the concert series is expected to become an annual event, Huntington said. Next year Antioch and CMYS are hoping to invite Adams Foundation pianists Ursula Oppens, John Nakamatsu and perhaps Awadagin Pratt.

With school music programs on the decline nationwide, concert organizers hope that exposure to exciting professional music concerts will inspire more youth to begin studying an instrument. Huntington also hopes the concerts will encourage the public to support other music events, such as the local CMYS concert series, which will host the Onyx Brass Quintet on Oct. 22, as well as the Soirées Musicales Piano Series in Dayton.

Tickets for the piano concerts are $15 for adults and $5 for students. Antioch students and members of college Community Government are admitted free of charge. All three concerts begin at 8 p.m.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com