SIU Carbondale’s Southern Illinois Piano Festival features guest artists, lectures

September 19, 2024

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University Carbondale Southern Illinois Piano Festival will once again provide magical moments next month as the biennial classical music festival brings works of renowned pianists to the region for lectures, workshops and solo recitals.

In its fourth run, this year's festival and guest artist series features pianists Daniel Paul Horn on Oct. 1, and Angela Kim on March 24-25. The concerts and lectures will be in the Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall on campus. All of the events are free and open to the public, thanks to support from the SIU Fine Arts Activity Fee.

Horn is professor of music and chair of the keyboard area at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. His lecture, "Working with Richard Danielpour: Composition as Friendship and Collaboration," is at 5 p.m.; the recital, where Horn will perform works by Danielpour, Franz Liszt and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is set for 7 p.m.

Kim is an associate professor of piano and director of the keyboard area at SIU Edwardsville. She will perform at 5 p.m. March 24. Her lecture, "Commissioning New Works and How to Work with Composers," is at 10 a.m. March 25. Kim's performance will also be part of the School of Music's Outside the Box Festival.

Community students who attend the Oct. 1 lecture and recital and March 24 recital, and who have their attendance checked on the form provided by an usher, will receive a 20% discount on the SIU Summer Piano Camp 2025 registration fee.

"The free events for the community students to attend with the piano camp 2025 registration fee discount offer is a wonderful opportunity for them to experience high quality performances and a lecture presented by critically acclaimed artists," said Junghwa Lee, a professor of piano in the School of Music.

Series to feature new and rare works

Lee said the series will feature "new works of living composers as well as traditional works that are both known and rarely heard." Previous piano festivals have been held in 2017, 2019 and 2022.

Lee said that Horn and Danielpour, an American composer, have formed a friendship and collaborated on music, including "Seven Mysteries," commissioned and written for Horn in 2020. In addition to playing several new compositions by Danielpour, Horn will perform Liszt's rarely heard "Variations on a Motif of Bach" and "Ava Maria," as well as Mozart's "Adagio in B minor, K. 540," which Lee said is also rarely heard. Horn serves on the board and is treasurer of the American Liszt Society.

Lee had the opportunity to watch and listen to Horn present and perform during the 2021 Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Virtual Conference. "I appreciated his sincere enthusiasm for the work and his performance."

Kim, meanwhile, a specialist in new music, will perform some recently completed commissioned works. She also plans to bring some electronic music to be performed with piano, Lee said. During her lecture, Kim will share her "firsthand experience working with composers and commissioning, which is a wonderful opportunity for School of Music students to learn from an active performer and frequently commissioning performer of new music," Lee said.

For additional information about the festival, contact Lee at [email protected].

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