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Performer Bio
Czech pianist Kristina Henckel and Cuban pianist Amanda Virelles formed 4HANDS Piano Duo in 2019. Their duo repertoire includes master pieces from the Classical, Romantic and 20th century periods. Both pianists started performing careers in their countries of origin, and completed doctoral degrees in piano performance and pedagogy in the United States. Currently, both Kristina and Amanda hold faculty positions in North Carolina, at Sandhills Community College and Fayetteville State University.
Dr. Kristina Henckel, an accomplished pianist and teacher, is a native of the Czech Republic. She is a graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, under the tutelage of Professor Peter Toperczer. During her study she received several awards in competitions held in the Czech Republic: third prize in the Chopin Piano Competition and Smetana International Piano Competition, and first prize in the National Piano Competition of Conservatories, including an award for best performance of Antonín Dvořák’s composition. At 18 Kristina debuted with Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5 Op. 73 “Emperor” with the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra. She further collaborated as a soloist with other regional orchestras in the Czech Republic.
After relocating to the United States in 1999, Kristina continued her studies by earning a doctorate in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma. In Oklahoma she acquired additional awards for her performances: first prize in the Donna Turner-Smith Piano Competition and first prize at the Graduate Concerto Competition 2012. In addition, her dissertation “Pianistic Analysis of Bedřich Smetana’s Piano Cycle Dreams” was nominated for the University of Oklahoma Provost’s Dissertation Prize 2016.
Kristina has performed numerous solo and collaborative recitals in Europe and United States. She also made several recordings for Radio Vltava, Czech Republic. In the fall of 2015 she became a Ritmüller piano artist. In May 2016, she released a CD with the piano trio Turnía featuring the piano trios of Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana. In April 2016 the ensemble was featured on the radio show Northwest Focus on King FM 98.1 in Seattle, WA. Kristina is also a member of the 4HANDS Piano Duo with Cuban-American pianist Amanda Virelles.
Currently she serves as music faculty at Fayetteville State University and Sandhills Community College in North Carolina.
Amanda Virelles has played for audiences around the world captivating them with her unique sound and deep interpretations. Her performances have been described as sensible, profound, and energetic. She has performed as a soloist as well as collaborative artist throughout the United States, Europe, South and Central America and the Caribbean.
Amanda began her piano studies in Cuba with Emilio Morales, and later with Serguei Leschenko, continued with Heirinch Neuhaus’ protegé Margarita Fyodorova at Moscow State Conservatory Tchaikovsky, and received her Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Russian Academy of Music Gnessins in Moscow, Russia, under the guidance of Inna Malinina, former disciple of Alexander Goldenwieser. Virelles also holds a Master Degree and a Doctoral Degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she received both a full assistantship and a fellowship as the winner of the Doctoral Assistantship Competition. While at USM, Amanda was a student of Dr. Lois Leventhal.
After winning First Prize and an Special Prize for best Cuban and Latin-American music performance in the “Amadeo Roldan” Piano Competition, in Cuba, she was given a full scholarship to study in Russia. She appeared as a soloist with several orchestras in Europe and South America under the direction of renowned conductors such as Yoshikatsu Fukumura, Mikhail Shervakov, Dmitir Manolov, Fillipo Zigante, Kimbo Ishii – Eto, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya. She was a featured winner of the William T. Gower Concerto Competition with the USM Symphony Orchestra under conductor Jay Dean. She has also performed under the baton of Raul Munguia and Alejandro Drago.
As a pedagogue Dr. Virelles has served as an Associate Professor of Music at Universidad del Atlántico in Colombia, in the fields of classical piano, theory, and chamber music from 1997 to 2003. Previously, she was on the piano faculty at the Conservatorio Nacional in Lima, Peru. Since her arrival to the United States, she has also served at Lane College, Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and at the School of Music of Belmont University. Currently, Dr. Virelles is an Associate Professor of Music at Fayetteville State University, in Fayetteville, North Carolina and teaches piano at Fayetteville School of Music
Amanda is an avid performer of chamber music and plays regularly with “Duo Guitiano” with Colombian-American guitarist Carlos Castilla and 4HANDS Piano Duo, with Czech pianist Kristina Henckel. Her solo and duo recordings are available in digital platforms.
Founded in June, 2003, the Fourth Friday Concert Series, formerly know as the 4th Friday Mix, stands as one of our area’s longest-running concert series. We remain committed to providing free and inclusive concerts that welcome musicians with a passion for sharing their talents. All attendees, including children capable of listening attentively, are warmly welcomed. Fourth Friday Concerts typically feature 2-4 performers or performance groups, although special occasions may showcase a single performer or group for the entire concert.
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Performer Bios
Andrew Wood, 18, graduated from Enloe High School with the International Baccalaureate Diploma last spring (2023). He is currently completing a gap year of intense preparation for a college degree in piano performance. Andrew has given solo recitals at Meredith College, Saint Mary’s School, and at private residences and retirement communities in Raleigh and Winston-Salem. As part of his study last summer at Krakow Piano, he performed in group recitals across Poland at Dębno Castle, Liszt Hall at Hotel Saski in Krakow, and Fazioli Concert Hall at the School of Music of Jastrzębie Zdrój. In addition to his study at Krakow, Andrew has studied in summer programs at the New Orleans Piano Institute and the Eastern Music Festival. Now in his second and final year with the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute, Andrew has been a member of two piano quartets. Currently he has serves as collaborative pianist for the Enloe High School Choral Department, and volunteers by teaching conducting, music theory, and choral music at Enloe. Andrew has won and received honors in local festivals and competitions such as the Young Artist Auditions, NC Music Teachers Association, and the Raleigh Piano Teachers Association Scholarship. He has placed twice in the Music Teachers National Association Competition, Senior Division. Andrew thanks his family and his teacher, Dr. Margaret Evans, for their support and for providing many wonderful opportunities.
Hrishikesh Ram (Hrishi) is a piano student of Dr. Olga Kleiankina of NC State University, and is pursuing chemical engineering and chemistry as a first-year undergraduate student. He previously was a student of Mr. John Herrmann of Durham, NC, and is also coached by Ms. Elizabeth Beilman of the NC Symphony in chamber music, as a member of the Tre Voce Piano Trio, North Carolina Chamber Music Institute. Hrishi has won prizes at the national, regional and international level in both solo piano and chamber music.
Fifteen-year-old Benjamin Luo, a ninth grader who hails from Apex, North Carolina, began his piano study with Florence Ko at age five. Since then, he has garnered first-prize awards in a myriad of piano competitions at state, national, and international levels. Benjamin has been the first-place winner in the Music Teacher National Association (MTNA) Piano Competition in both Junior and Senior Solo categories in the state round for five consecutive years, beginning in 2019. He was also a two-time MTNA Junior Piano National Finalist. In addition, along with his brother Brandon, Benjamin placed second nationally in the 2022-2023 MTNA Senior Piano Duet Competition, following a first-place win in the state and divisional rounds. Benjamin has performed with several orchestras after winning concerto competitions, including the Hampton Roads Philharmonic, the Chapel Hill Philharmonic, and the Tar River Orchestra. Recently, Benjamin played the full Rachmaninoff No. 2 Piano Concerto with the Long Bay Symphony of South Carolina.
Anastacy Golovidov is a sophomore at North Carolina State University pursuing her Bachelor in Graphic & Experience Design along with a minor in Music with Dr. Olga Kleiankina. She began her piano study with Olga Urick and at age six entered her first competition. From 2011-2017 she earned several 1st place, 2nd place, and Honorable Mention awards at the Young Artist Audition piano competition. Her achievements include multiple North Carolina Music Teachers Association and North Carolina Federation of Music Clubs district awards. In 2018 she received 2nd place at the Elizabeth Bullard competition. In 2019 she won first place at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts piano weekend festival. Her most recent awards include 2nd place in Young Artist Audition piano competition in 2021, 1st place at NCFMC Royalty 2022 and she is a CAPTA Scholarship Competition award recipient for College Minor in Music.
Sam Prochnau is a sophomore at North Carolina State University studying aerospace engineering with a minor in piano performance. Sam has played piano for 14 years, studying first under Irene Fix and currently under Dr. Olga Kleiankina. As a soloist, Sam has experience performing recitals in both North Carolina and his home state of Pennsylvania, and has performed in numerous masterclasses with distinguished piano professors from across the country. Sam also enjoys accompanying, reaching the 2022 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) All-State choir conference, accompanying the Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra, as well as playing with various other ensembles and soloists. Outside of music, Sam plays club ultimate frisbee for NC State, enjoys hiking, and is a member of NC State’s Design Build Fly aerospace engineering club.
Brandon Luo, 17, is an eleventh grader from Apex, NC, who began his piano study with Florence Ko at age five. Since then, he has competed in numerous piano competitions and has won many competition awards, including first place in North Carolina Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Senior and Junior Piano Competitions, East Carolina University Young Artist Piano Competition, Hayes School of Music Piano Competition, United States International Music Competition, Great Masters International Piano Competition, American Protégé International Music Talent Competition, Charles F.T. Nakarai Piano Competition, RPTA Scholarship Competition, RPTA Young Artist Audition, as well as the State Royalty Competitions, NC Federation of Music Clubs State Scholarship Competition “Mary Davis Memorial Award”, “Maxine Taylor Fountain Award”, “NCFMC Past Presidents Award”, and “Thursday Morning Music Club Of Winston-Salem Award.” Brandon, along with his brother Benjamin, placed second nationally in the 2022-2023 MTNA Senior Piano Duet Competition, after winning first place in the state and divisional rounds. Recently, Brandon received first place in the RPTA Young Artist Auditions Concerto Competition and Federation of Music Clubs Competition “Estelle Brady Senior Piano Concerto Award”.
Founded in June, 2003, the Fourth Friday Concert Series, formerly know as the 4th Friday Mix, stands as one of our area’s longest-running concert series. We remain committed to providing free and inclusive concerts that welcome musicians with a passion for sharing their talents. All attendees, including children capable of listening attentively, are warmly welcomed. Fourth Friday Concerts typically feature 2-4 performers or performance groups, although special occasions may showcase a single performer or group for the entire concert.
Performer Bio
Consistently in demand on the concert stage, Polish-American Concert Pianist Solomon Eichner has garnered international acclaim with performances in England, Italy, Germany, Poland, Austria and throughout the U.S. Declared by the American Liszt Society as “A sensitive pianist, Solomon’s playing is poetic, beautiful and moving with deep feeling”, “A young Arthur Rubinstein”.
In the 2023 season commemorating Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday, Solomon performed many concerts showcasing the composer at various universities and concert series from San Francisco to Sarasota to Southampton.
An avid chamber musician, Solomon debuted on the 2023 Newport Music Festival, Rhode Island with Cellist Amit Peled.
Solomon performed in the 2022 season with the North Carolina Symphony, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto under Conductor Christoph Koenig. In 2021 Solomon debuted with the NC Symphony playing Saint Saens Carnival of the Animals.
Sponsored by the March of the Living Foundation, Solomon performed for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at the Krakow Philharmonic Hall, Jewish Cultural Center and at Auschwitz in front of a crowd of 20,000 people.
Solomon has performed concertos with conductors Uriel Segal – Grieg; John Gordon Ross – Rachmaninoff 3rd; Mark Peterson – Liszt 1 and Chopin 2; David Hagy – Mendlessohn 1; Michelle Di Russo – Saint Saens Carnival of Animals; Tonu Kalam – Beethoven Triple; and appeared with George Mariner Maull on his Discovery Orchestra series. Orchestras Solomon has performed with include NC, Salisbury, Western Piedmont, Wilson, UNC, Discovery, Alicante Spain.
Solomon is a prizewinner of the Liszt-Garrison International Competition, International Young Artists Competition Washington D.C., GoldenKey Carnegie Hall Debut Competition and Miami Music Festival Concerto Competition.
Music Festivals Solomon has performed in include Perugia Italy, Pianofest in the Hamptons, Montecito California, Atlantic Maine, American Fine Arts Festival in Austria, SUNY New Paltz, IKIF Mannes.
Concert series Solomon has recently performed on include Artist Series Sarasota, Noontime Concerts Old St. Marys Cathedral San Francisco, Parrish Museum Water Mill, Community Concerts at 2nd Baltimore, St. Paul’s Church Augusta with Violinist Brian Reagin, Chamber Music Raleigh, Cary Page-Walker House, Paderewski Festival, University of Tampa Sykes Chapel, Tribby Arts Center Ft. Myers, Polish Embassy D.C, Temple Longboat Key, First Presbyterian Naples, Yale Gordon Trust, National City Church D.C, Music in the Great Hall, Bower Chapel Trinity by the Cove, Weymouth Arts Center, Pamlico Music Society, among others.
Originally from Baltimore, Solomon graduated from the Manhattan School of Music and Peabody Conservatory. When not concertizing, Solomon maintains a faculty position for the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute. Currently Solomon resides in Chapel Hill with his wife.
Website: www.solomoneichnerpianist.com
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Performer Bios
Born in NYC, New York and based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Alain Arvelo studied voice at Mars Hill University under Dr. Joel Reed. After graduating from Mars Hill University in 2016, Alain has focused on primarily recital and private performances. He now studies privately under Raoul Simon Düsterhaus. Armed with a precocious talent, a bottomless curiosity and an inexhaustible tenacity, Alain has been performing operatic repertoire and recitals since the age of 14. Alain has performed scenes from: Cosi fan tutte, L’elisir d’amore, Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Werther, Manon, Rigoletto, Roméo et Juliette, La Traviata & Lucia di lammermoor.
Minseong Joo, 18, was born in South Korea, and he currently lives in Cary, North Carolina. He began learning the piano at the age of twelve under Dr. Moon Choi. He has won several awards which include: 1st place in Raleigh Piano Teachers Association Competition, 1st place at the ECU Piano Competition, 1st at the UNCSA Competition and 1st at RPTA Concerto Competition. He has also performed in many venues such as A.J. Fletcher Recital Hall at ECU, Carswell Concert Hall at Meredith College, and many more. He was a participant at the ECU Piano Festival and the Vivace Music Festival, and has performed in masterclasses with many renowned artists, including Sean Chen, Christopher Guzman, Yakov Kasman, Alexander Kobrin, Meng-Chieh Liu, Marina Lomazov, Jerome Lowenthal, John O’Conor, and Victor Rosenbaum. He is also a founder of the Music Cures All non-profit organization and has performed at several senior centers and other organizations as charity events. In addition to his piano studies, he enjoys watching movies, reading books, playing sports, and spending time with family and friends.
Founded in June, 2003, the Fourth Friday Concert Series, formerly know as the 4th Friday Mix, stands as one of our area’s longest-running concert series. We remain committed to providing free and inclusive concerts that welcome musicians with a passion for sharing their talents. All attendees, including children capable of listening attentively, are warmly welcomed. Fourth Friday Concerts typically feature 2-4 performers or performance groups, although special occasions may showcase a single performer or group for the entire concert.
Click here for livestream!
Performer Bios
Patricia Gray holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory (BM), the University of Wisconsin/ Madison (MM), and from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (DMA). She is the former Artistic Director and Pianist of National Musical Arts (NMA), for 21 seasons the resident ensemble at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, and the founder and Director of NMA’s BioMusic Program. As pianist, she has performed at The White House, is the recipient of the prestigious Franz Liszt Commemorative Medal from the government of Hungary, a soloist with leading orchestras, and has collaborated in performances with renowned composers and artists. As Executive Producer, she created and produced international concerts with 18 foreign Embassies, a companion concert for an international art exhibition, and productions with the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., the Motion Picture Association, ASCAP, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Smithsonian, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. As music researcher, Dr. Gray leads teams of distinguished scientists and musicians that explore the musical sounds in all species and is particularly known for her research with bonobo apes. She was the lead author of a BioMusic article in the journal, Science, and represented the Biomusic Program in articles for: NYTimes, BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, The Boston Globe, London Daily Telegraph, and media in Latin America. Dr. Gray was Co-PI for a $3 million BioMusic science exhibition – Wild Music – funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that toured nationwide; and servesd as PI for the NSF funded BioMusic curriculum project – UBEATS. In 2002, Dr. Gray was appointed Senior Specialist by the Fulbright Program, the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars to serve as a special consultant to foreign institutions and organizations worldwide. Dr. Gray is retired from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro where she served as Clinical Professor and Senior Research Scientist in the Music Research Institute.
Joseph Di Piazza has performed extensively in the United States, Canada, China and Europe as a recitalist, chamber player, and concerto soloist. He has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards including: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto soloist in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Chopin recital at the Chicago Art Institute as winner of the Chicago’s Women’s Club Piano Competition, MacDowell recital at Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University as winner of the Illinois National Federation of Music State Competition. In addition to numerous University guest artist recitals such as the University of Alberta, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Kentucky, other venues include the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for the Performing and Cultural Arts, and Concert Series at the Art Museums of Washington DC, Cincinnati, North Carolina and Kentucky. He has participated as a performer, clinician and adjudicator in festivals at Interlochen, Michigan; Eastern Music Festival, Greensboro, NC; Chicago Spring Arts Festival; Beethoven Festival on Long Island, NYC; and Focus on Piano Literature Series at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro School of Music where he was a member of the piano faculty for 43 years. Concerto performances include the canon of Russian Romantic Concertos: including Tchaikovsky 1st and Rachmaninoff 2nd and 3rd with numerous Symphony Orchestras. Dr. Di Piazza holds degrees from DePaul University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
https://www.pianosoundings.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTQimNpZEolOm0uMcAcBAKQ/featured
Founded in June, 2003, the Fourth Friday Concert Series, formerly know as the 4th Friday Mix, stands as one of our area’s longest-running concert series. We remain committed to providing free and inclusive concerts that welcome musicians with a passion for sharing their talents. All attendees, including children capable of listening attentively, are warmly welcomed. Fourth Friday Concerts typically feature 2-4 performers or performance groups, although special occasions may showcase a single performer or group for the entire concert.
Click here for livestream!
Performer Bios
Dorothy Lewis-Griffith, pianist
Dorothy Lewis-Griffith was born in High Point, North Carolina. She began her musical studies when she was four in both piano and accordion. At ten, she studied intensively at the Pietro Deiro Accordion Conservatory in New York City’s Greenwich Village for eight weeks. After that experience she concentrated on the more challenging piano, and when she was fourteen, she made her orchestral debut with the North Carolina Symphony. Between junior and senior years in high school, Ms. Lewis-Griffith won a scholarship with James Friskin at the Chautauqua Institution.
With Beveridge Webster she earned undergraduate and master’s degrees at The Juilliard School. She continued studies under a Fulbright-Hays Grant, first at the Conservatoire Nationale de Paris with Marcel Ciampi and later at the École Normale de Musique with Jules Gentil. During that time, she competed and won a prize in the Geneva International Piano Competition. As a result, Ms. Lewis-Griffith was a sponsored candidate to the first Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition the following year.
Later she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. There she worked with Elizabeth Katzenellenbogen, Konrad Wolff, and Leon Fleisher.
Ms. Lewis-Griffith has served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Superior and the Peabody Conservatory. The University of Georgia Board of Regents awarded her the Associate Professor Emerita title after she retired from Valdosta State University. Then, for sixteen years Ms. Lewis-Griffith was Artist-in-Residence at the Adrian L. and Dorothy L. Shuford School of Performing Arts of Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina.
She has been an adjudicator for the Fulbright Screening Committee, North Carolina School of the Arts auditions, Governor’s Honors Program in Georgia, Cincinnati Conservatory auditions, Chattanooga Symphony auditions, and many years for the North Carolina Federation of Music Clubs.
Ms. Lewis-Griffith premiered several works by American composer Robert Starer, the subject of her doctoral dissertation, and wrote articles about him for Grove’s Dictionary of American Music and Musicians and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. She is also a fine interpreter of George Gershwin’s opus, having published two CDs of his music.
“A sensitive and attentive musician” according to Edward Rothstein of The New York Times, Ms. Lewis-Griffith has given recitals and soloed with orchestras in major U.S. cities as well as in Europe, South America and Asia. Dorothy’s music can be heard on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube as well as on her website Dorothy Lewis-Griffith.com.
Edward L. Lewis
Experience:
2016- Writing books
2000-2016 Attorney, private practice and indigent defense, working in areas of criminal and juvenile law.
1984-1996 Vice President and Dean of Student Development, Lenoir-Rhyne College (now University), instructor of Great Books
1980-1984 Director of Student Development, Georgia Southern College (now University)
1973-1980 Instructor, Rockingham Community College: philosophy, world Religions, western civilization and psychology
Education:
1996-1999 Juris Doctor, UNC School of Law
1977-1980 Ph.D. Social Studies Education, dissertation, Affective Issues in
1967-1972 M. Div. Duke Divinity School, Duke University
1971-72 Foreign exchange, New College, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
1968-1970 Peace Corps Iran
1963-1967 B.S. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Special Interests:
Running (50 marathons), history, writing, photography, rose gardening
Program Notes
Welcome to the Great Hall of Camelot Dorothy Lewis-Griffith invites you to go on a magical, musical journey in time. Should you wish to go, her original compositions will transport you back to the Dark Ages. Merlin (THE Merlin) has found five twenty-first-century kids who he thinks, or hopes, are the ones to fulfill a prophecy and save the future. They can do so by saving the life of a young lad—and future great wizard—threatened by an evil shamaness. You will accompany these time travelers to the kingdom of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. You will meet Arthur, Guinevere, Sir Launcelot, and the very evil shamaness, among others. Most of all, however, you will meet the greatest wizard of myth or history, Merlin.
Inspired by a series of novels, Stars in the Future Skies by Ed Lewis, depicting an epic struggle in the Dark Ages, Lewis-Griffith draws on historical references—Gregorian chants, medieval celebratory music, the Mass for the Dead, as well as more contemporary themes—to create musical pictures to carry us and our imaginations to a time and place far away, shrouded in the murky mists of the past.
You will hear the darkness of assassinations and mortal combat, march with Knights of the Round Table into the Great Hall of Camelot, explore the ferocity and personality of the greatest yet flawed knight, Sir Launcelot, feel the struggles of the boys as they serve as squires to the knights who quest and find, the Holy Grail. You will sink to the bottom of the sea in one of Merlin’s educational interventions to form a mystical, learning friendship with a community of highly sensitive mermaids.
Join us for a remarkable, original musical odyssey, journeys of growth and change, adventures as violent as a Dark Age joust, as lofty as the noble goals of chivalry, as lowly as murder, as magic as the Holy Grail. Go with these kids as they grow in self-awareness, mature into knighthood, and more. All this, in the musical compositions of Dorothy Lewis-Griffith.
Founded in June, 2003, the Fourth Friday Concert Series, formerly know as the 4th Friday Mix, stands as one of our area’s longest-running concert series. We remain committed to providing free and inclusive concerts that welcome musicians with a passion for sharing their talents. All attendees, including children capable of listening attentively, are warmly welcomed. Fourth Friday Concerts typically feature 2-4 performers or performance groups, although special occasions may showcase a single performer or group for the entire concert.
Click Here for Livestream!
Performer Bio
Korean-American pianist Anthony C. Lee was a Fulbright recipient at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary in 2021 and a grand prize winner at the 2018 Chicago International Music Competition. Lee’s performance career has taken him across the US and Europe including in Italy, Greece, Hungary, Prague, and Serbia.
Dr. Lee’s research was centered around the history of the Liszt Academy and its rich lineage of Hungarian musicians. During the Fulbright residency, he also engaged in masterclasses and interviews with professors of the Academy alongside his performance activities. Last season (2022-23), Lee gave a series of lecture recitals across many US institutions including one at Indiana University for the American Liszt Society Festival. In his talk titled, An American in Budapest, Anthony shares his research and experiences of the city and the institution’s cultural vibrancy alongside a unique musical program of Hungarian composers.
Anthony has engaged in masterclasses with renowned teachers and performers such as Robert McDonald (Juilliard and Curtis), Martin Canin (Juilliard), John Perry (Glenn Gould School), André Laplante, Alexander Korsantia (New England Conservatory), Jonathan Biss (Marlborough Festival), Hie-Yon Choi (Seoul National University), Mūza Rubackytė, and Alexander Braginsky.
Lee also founded in January of 2017 the Cary Classical Concerts and organized a series of themed concerts to offer high-caliber classical music to a broader audience. He also performed solo and chamber music with guest artists, often speaking to the audience that ranged in the hundreds. On radio, he was featured in My Life in Music on WCPE, the classical radio station of North Carolina.
Dr. Lee holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, the University of Michigan, and the Interlochen Arts Academy. He completed his DMA studies at the University of Kansas under Steven Spooner who is now a professor at the Peabody School of Music, Johns Hopkins University.
Founded in June, 2003, the Fourth Friday Concert Series, formerly know as the 4th Friday Mix, stands as one of our area’s longest-running concert series. We remain committed to providing free and inclusive concerts that welcome musicians with a passion for sharing their talents. All attendees, including children capable of listening attentively, are warmly welcomed. Fourth Friday Concerts typically feature 2-4 performers or performance groups, although special occasions may showcase a single performer or group for the entire concert.
Join us in welcoming Dr. Indrek Laul, Concert Pianist and CEO of Estonia Piano Company, and his wife, Triin-Maret Laul, for a special concert with reception to follow!
