On Thursday, Sept. 4, the UTC Music Department kicks off its 2008-09 concert season when Pianist Peter Cooper and colleagues present a recital entitled “Peter Cooper and Friends: All Brahms!” The concert will be held at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall of the UTC Fine Arts Center, (corner of Palmetto and Vine St.) The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and is open to the general public free of charge.
The recital features Brahm’s virtuosic “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel” for solo piano. Additionally Cooper will be joined by sopranos Julie Penner and Gennevieve Brown-Kibble and altos Laurie Redmer Minner and Laurie Cooper in a performance of seven songs from the rarely heard “12 Songs and Romances.” The program concludes with Mark Reneau, Violin and Gordon James, Horn, joining Cooper for the exciting and uniquely scored Horn Trio.
Peter Cooper is a highly acclaimed pianist, chamber musician, and teacher. He has performed and taught throughout the United States as well as Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Mexico, Russia, and on the island of Guam. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in piano performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. He completed his D.M.A. in Piano Performance at the University of Michigan School of Music. From 1987 Cooper taught at Andrews University (Berrien Springs, MI), and chaired the music department there from 1992 to 2006. An enthusiastic teacher, he has also served on the keyboard faculty of the University of Michigan All-State Program at Interlochen and is a member of the faculty of the MasterWorks Festival of the Christian Performing Artist's Fellowship.