Free Lunchtime Concert: Charles Whitehead

Join the Free Lunchtime Concert with New Zeland pianist Charles Whitehead. He made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall in New York in 2017. The New York Piano Group described him as a “powerful technician…able to convey the abiding humanity of Schumann.” His recent solo performances in Prague, Edinburgh, Florence, Dallas, New York, and Martha’s Vineyard have all been very well received. Charles completed a Ph.D. in Piano Performance recently at Texas Tech University. His interdisciplinary research focuses on an application of Konstantin Stanislavski’s Acting ‘System’ to the preparation and performance of instrumental music. He has taught for the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University for three years in the areas of Fine Arts Education and in Jazz Studies and he adjudicated for the University’s 2016 Jazz Festival featuring trombonist, Bill Watrous.

Charles performs Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3 as a soloist in the U.S. later this year and is equally active in the area of new music. As a resident in Fort Worth, Charles was actively involved in Texas Christian University’s New Music Ensemble, playing solo piano music by Bernard Rands and Ludmila Yurina in U.S. premiere performances. He has worked extensively as a collaborative pianist, recently playing for Susan Graham, Betty Buckley and in New York, a performance of Schoenberg’s Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten with soprano, Ekaterina Stetsyuk. Charles is also the composer of two musical theatre works with Emmy award-winning writer Richard Allen, who has worked as a vocal coach and in a Latin jazz ensemble in the central Dallas area.

Programme

Scriabin Sonata for Piano No 5 in F sharp
Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue No 4 in E minor
Messiaen ‘Contemplation of the Son upon the Son’ from Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus
Liszt Rhapsodie Espagnole