WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Menahem Pressler, founding pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio, will be in residence at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) during the weekend of February 16-17. He will perform a recital on Saturday, February 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Watson Chamber Music Hall on the NCSA campus. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students and are available through the NCSA Web site www.ncarts.edu or through the NCSA box office, (336) 721-1945.

In addition, Pressler will teach a master class on Sunday, February 17 at 12:30 p.m. in Watson Hall as part of the NCSA annual Piano Weekend. The master class is free and open to the public.

Pressler’s solo recital on the 16^th will include Mozart’s Rondo in A Minor, Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 110, Debussy’s Estampes and Schubert’s Sonata Op. posth. in B-flat Major. This recital is made possible by a generous gift from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.

Pressler was awarded first prize at the Debussy International Piano Competition in 1946 in San Francisco, which launched his successful and illustrious career. This was followed by his acclaimed American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Eugene Ormandy. Since then, Pressler’s extensive tours of North America and Europe have included performances with the orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Dallas, San Francisco, London, Paris, Brussels, Oslo, Helsinki and many others.

Pressler has received honorary doctorates from the University of Nebraska and NCSA, five Grammy nominations (including one in 2006), a lifetime achievement award from Gramophone magazine, Chamber Music America’s Distinguished Service Award, and the Gold Medal of Merit from the National Society of Arts and Letters. He also has received the German Critics “Ehrenurkunde” award and has been elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Piano Weekend is an annual recruitment event for the NCSA School of Music and will take place on February 16^th and 17^th. Young pianists from around the region are invited to attend. In addition to Pressler’s master class on the 17^th, faculty artists Allison Gagnon, Eric Larsen and Clifton Matthews will teach master classes on the 16^th in Watson Hall.

The North Carolina School of the Arts, located in Winston-Salem (“The City of the Arts”), was the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, NCSA opened in Winston-Salem in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. The North Carolina School of the Arts is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. The chancellor, deans, and faculty work with students in a residential setting to create an educational community that is intimate, demanding, and performance-centered. Learning is enriched by access to an academic program responsive to a conservatory curriculum. Founded to be both an educational institution and a resource enhancing the cultural life of the state of North Carolina and the Southeast, NCSA offers numerous public performances, on- and off-campus, as well as community education in the arts.

School of the Arts alumni have performed in or behind the scenes of Broadway shows, film, television and regional theatre, and are members of the world’s finest symphony orchestras and opera and dance companies. They have won or been nominated for all of the major awards in the entertainment industry, including Tony, Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and others.

 

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