The musical majesty of one of the greatest piano instructors in history will fill Wittenberg's campus as the university's Department of Music hosts the 52nd annual Matthay Piano Festival June 17-20.
Lectures, demonstrations, recitals and master classes will take place throughout each day, while concerts by nationally and internationally acclaimed pianists are offered each evening. Activities and performances are scheduled for both Krieg Hall and Weaver Chapel.
Designed to offer participants direct and concentrated access to the teaching principles of Tobias Matthay (1858-1945), Matthay Festivals have taken place throughout the United States and Canada since 1958, usually on college campuses with strong music programs. The first concert will be a recital by Lynn Rice-See, currently a professor at East Tennessee State University, who has performed throughout the world. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, 300 Krieg Hall.
Matthay, a professor of advanced piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1876-1925, founded a piano school in 1905 and soon became known for his teaching, which stressed proper piano touch and analysis of arm movements. He gained international recognition through several published books analyzing piano technique, and many of his pupils went on to define a school of 20th-century English pianism. His British pupils included such renowned artists as Dame Myra Hess, Dame Moura Lympany and Sir Clifford Curzon.
His American students founded the American Matthay Association in 1925 to keep alive his ideas on this side of the Atlantic.
Several Wittenberg professors and students are involved in the festival, including Wittenberg Adjunct Professor of Music Stephen Siek, who will present a lecture titled "Matthay in the Twentieth Century: Exploring Color in Prokofieff's Fifth Sonata" at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 18. He will also perform the work in its entirety following the lecture.
Krieg Hall is home to the John M. Chowning Laboratory for Music and Technology, and acoustical instruments including 23 grands, five pipe organs, two harpsichords and over 100 orchestral instruments. Weaver Chapel houses a 51-rank, 3000-pipe Reuter organ and a 9-foot Bösendorfer concert grand.
Wittenberg students, faculty and staff will be granted free admission. Complete information on the festival and how to register can be found online at: http://www.matthay.org
