Monday, January 17, 2011

The University of North Carolina Wilmington's Office of Cultural Arts presents LISZT200, a yearlong series commemorating the bicentennial of the birth of one of music's great visionaries, composer Franz Liszt. The series will kick off with a performance featuring pianists Norman Bemelmans and Elizabeth Loparits at 8 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011 in UNCW's Kenan Auditorium.

A creative artist of unparalleled brilliance, Franz Liszt left a musical legacy that in its passion and profundity resounds with powerful resonance. Still considered the most extraordinary pianist the world has seen, Liszt explored and exploited every aspect of the keyboard's capability in music demanding the highest virtuosity, drama of inordinate energy and poetry of the deepest poignancy. Part Franciscan cleric, part worldly sensualist, a musical aristocrat whose music reflects the earthy tones and primal rhythms of the Hungarian Gypsy, Franz Liszt as both man and artist embodied and shaped the dynamic contradictions of the era his life so dramatically spanned-the Age of Romanticism.

LISZT200 will explore the composer's far-reaching genius. Featured artists include pianists Norman Bemelmans and Elizabeth Loparits; UNC Chapel Hill Chamber Singers (Susan Klebanow, director); Wilmington Symphony Orchestra (Steven Errante, conductor); and other special guests. The series kicks off at 8 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 27 in UNCW's Kenan Auditorium with Passion and Poetry, featuring pianists Bemelmans and Loparits in a program of Liszt at his most brilliant and lyrical. The program includes solo works from The Years of Pilgrimage, the powerful Totentanz and a performance of the Concerto Pathetique, a rarely heard masterpiece for two pianos.

Tickets for the Jan. 27 performance are $24 general public, $20 UNCW faculty/staff and $6 UNCW students with valid ID. Tickets and information are available at Kenan Auditorium Box Office, Monday-Friday, noon to 6 p.m., or by phone at 910.962. 3500 or 800.732.3643.

Media contact:
Courtney Reilly, Office of Cultural Arts, 910.962.2082 or reillyce@uncw.edu

###

Norman Bemelmans, UNCW Director of Cultural Arts, has received enthusiastic international critical acclaim for his interpretations of Chopin and Liszt. The Italian publication Il Tempo proclaimed: ". . . the combination of lyrical subtlety and virtuosic power was overwhelming in its impact. Bemelmans plays Liszt the way Liszt is meant to be played."

Elizabeth Loparits, UNCW Department of Music faculty member, is a graduate of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest and the winner of the 1995 National Bartók Piano Competition and the 1996 Kodály-Bartók Chamber Music Competition.