News Release
November 2001
(Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania) - Moravian College Music Department will hold a special
master class with Gary Graffman in Peter Hall on Thursday, November
15, at 11:30 am. Graffman is hailed as one of the great living classical
pianists. He is currently the director and president of the Curtis Institute
of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received an Honorary Doctor
of Music from Moravian in 1995. General admission is $10, and $5 for
senior citizens and students.
Graffman was accepted into the Curtis Institute as a piano
student in 1936, when he was seven. After 10 years of study with Isabelle
Vengerova, he graduated and shortly thereafter made his debut with the
Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. He has remained a member
of the Curtis association for the past 64 years.
Graffman continued his musical studies at the under Vladimir
Horowitz and then at the Marlboro Music Festival with Rudolf Serkin.
At the age of 20 he won the Leventritt Award which launched his career
on the international concert circuit. In 1953, Graffman appeared in
performance with Horowitz and Josef Hoffman at a celebration of the
One Hundredth birthday of Steinway & Sons.
For the next three decades Graffman toured almost constantly.
He became a prolific recording artist at CBS & RCA.. The catalogues
he made at the studios include concertos by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff,
Prokofiev, Brahms, Chopin, and Beethoven and are recorded with the orchestras
of Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland, Chicago and Boston.
For more information, call the Music Department at 610-861-1650.
