UT Celebrates Hungarian Composer’s 200th Birthday with Concert

UT musicians will celebrate Hungarian composer Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values with works for piano, voice and organ.

The concert is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Doors will open 45 minutes before the concert.

Liszt was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule" ("New German School"). Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.

Grigorios Zamparas, pianist and assistant professor of music, and Haig Mardirosian, organist and dean of UT’s College of Arts and Letters, will be joined by soprano Hein Jung for a program of Liszt’s songs. Pieces will include the “Piano Sonata in B Minor” and the organ “Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H.” Jung will sing the three sonnets of Petrarch.

Zamparas will give a preconcert talk at 6:15 p.m.

The Liszt celebration is part of the Concert Artist Series 2011-2012, and is sponsored by the UT College of Arts and Letters and the Sykes Chapel Center for Faith and Values. For more information, contact caldean@ut.edu or go to www.ut.edu/sykeschapel.