The Lee University Performing Arts Series will continue on Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 7:30 p.m. with Andrew Willis on the fortepiano. The program will take place in Squires Recital Hall, located in Lee’s Humanities Center.
The program will include works by C.P.E Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Clementi, and Beethoven. They will be performed on the fortepiano, a predecessor to the modern piano that was popular during the 18th century. In each of his performances, Mr. Willis seeks to recreate the way each piece would have sounded in the era in which it was written.
To do so, Mr. Willis plays on historical instruments like the fortepiano and incorporates the techniques and practices common in the respective stylistic era.
In his multi-decade career, Mr. Willis has performed as a soloist with period-instrument chamber orchestras such as the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, the Apollo Ensemble, the Magnolia Baroque Festival and the Philadelphia Classical Symphony. He participated in the first complete recording of the Beethoven sonata cycle. Mr. Willis has also collaborated with artists such as soprano Julianne Baird, flutist Sue Ann Kahn and cellist Brent Wissick.
Mr. Willis is a professor of music at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he teaches piano, fortepiano and harpsichord, as well as courses in keyboard literature and performance practice. He is also the director of UNCG’s Focus on Piano Literature, a biennial conference for keyboardists.
Admission to the concert is free, but tickets are required due to limited seating. They will be available at the Dixon Center Box Office, beginning one week before the concert, and at showclix.com.
For more information about this concert or the Performing Arts Series, contact the Lee University School of Music by calling 423-614-8240 or by emailing music@leeuniversity.edu.