Tue 10/21 @ 7:30PM
Sixty-four-year-old Canadian pianist/composer Marc-André Hamelin has had a busy career as a recitalist and recording artist, performing around the world with orchestras and as a soloist, releasing nearly 70 albums, which have garnered 11 Grammy nominations. He’s also an educator on the faculty of the noted New England Conservatory of Music.
One of the focuses of his career as a pianist has been playing and recording music by lesser known composers such as 19th-century French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan, 19th/20th-century Lithuanian-American composer Leopold Godowsky and early/mid 20th-century Russian-Canadian pianist/violinist/composer Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté. But he’s also copiously recorded work by the staples of the piano repertoire such as Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin.
When he comes to Akron’s EJ Thomas Hall for the opening concert in the Tuesday Music Association’s 2025-26 series, he’ll be performing music by well-known composers: Maurice Ravel’s 1908 Gaspard de la Nuit (dubbed “one of the most difficult piano pieces ever written), Robert Schumann’s 1850 Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), and Beethoven’s 1817 Piano Sonata No 29 (“Hammerklavier”).
As Tuesday Musical’s Margaret Baxtresser Pianist this season, Hamelin will teach a masterclass for students from Kent State University and Tuesday Musical’s Brahms Allegro Junior Music Club. Brahms Allegro student Saya Uejima will open Hamelin’s concert.
Get tickets here.