News Release

Note: For more artist information and photos, see end of story.

Pianist Peter Serkin to appear
at Memorial Hall Nov. 10

CHAPEL HILL - Classical pianist Peter Serkin, who has performed around the world and collaborated with musical virtuosos including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, will perform at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Nov. 10.

Carolina Performing Arts will present the concert at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall's Beasley-Curtis Auditorium. Serkin will play selections by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Renaissance composer Josquin Despréz (Flemish, circa 1440-1521), as well as contemporary pieces by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (1936-1996).

Serkin will perform on the hall's Hamburg Steinway D piano, a gift from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust. The D model is a 9-foot concert grand that is built by hand in a yearlong process that combines some 12,000 parts.

"Peter Serkin is a wonderful pianist and a stand-out performer," said Emil Kang, Carolina's executive director for the arts. "His classical and contemporary performance will be something the university and surrounding community will not want to miss."

Throughout his career, Serkin has conveyed the essence of five centuries of repertoire to worldwide critical acclaim. The son of pianist Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991), he has performed with major international symphony orchestras and with conductors including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, James Levine and Seiji Ozawa.

Besides Ma, Serkin has collaborated with the Guarneri and Orion string quartets and others. An avid proponent of 20th- and 21st-century composers, Serkin has performed many world premieres. New York Magazine called him "one of the supreme musicians of our time."
Serkin entered Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music in 1958 at age 11. He made his Marlboro Music Festival and New York City debuts a year later and received invitations to perform with the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras.

Serkin's recent and upcoming concerts include performances with the New York Philharmonic; the Minnesota Orchestra; the symphonies of Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, St. Louis, Toronto and Atlanta; recitals in New York's Carnegie Hall and Chicago's Orchestra Hall; and summer festivals nationwide.

Tickets for Serkin's performance, $30-$60, are available online at www.carolinaperformingarts.org; by calling (919) 843-3333; or from the Memorial Hall Box Office on Cameron Avenue, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Tickets for Carolina students are $10. Tickets also are on sale for other performances. For more information, visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org.

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Note: For artist media kits and downloadable photos, visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org/media

Carolina Performing Arts contacts: Don Smith, (919) 843-3119, donsmith@email.unc.edu; Jennifer Warner, (919) 966-3834, jenniferwarner@unc.edu