Pianist Ann Schein to Give Solo Recital at Peabody, Dec. 5
Distinguished Alumni Award Will Be Presented at Concert
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Margaret Bell
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 29, 2012, Baltimore, MD: Acclaimed performing and recording artist Ann Schein, a member of the Peabody Conservatory faculty for two decades, will return to Peabody on Wednesday, Dec. 5, to give a solo piano recital and receive the 2012 Peabody Distinguished Alumni Award. The 7:30 p.m. concert in Peabody’s Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall, 17 East Mount Vernon Place, is free and open to the public.
"Ann is the consummate artist who shares her gifts, knowledge, passion, heart, and soul with her students and with audiences across the globe,” said Mellasenah Morris, dean of the Conservatory and deputy director of the Peabody Institute, one of the nine schools of The Johns Hopkins University. “How special it will be to celebrate the life and career of such a great Peabody alumna as the fall semester draws to a close."
After studying at Peabody with Mieczysław Munz, Schein did what every conservatory student hopes to do: leave school to begin a brilliant career. In 1959, at the age of 19, she made a series of recordings that led to American and European tours as a recitalist and a soloist with major orchestras. In 1962, she made her debut at Carnegie Hall and, the following year, played at the White House at the invitation of President and Mrs. Kennedy.
Since then, Schein has returned many times to Carnegie Hall and made 10 worldwide tours under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, among many other appearances. She has performed with conductors including George Szell, James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, James dePreist, David Zinman, Stanislaw Skrowacewski, and Sir Colin Davis, and with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the Washington National Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Schein recently performed at the Austrian Embassy to mark the publication of Five Lives in Music: Women Performers, Composers, and Impresarios from the Baroque to the Present by Cecelia Hopkins Porter, who writes about classical music for The Washington Post. She is life number five, “An American Concert Pianist in Today’s World.”
The beloved teacher of generations of pianists, Schein has taught at the Aspen Music Festival and School since 1984, holding the Victoria and Ronald Simms Chair in 2006, 2007, and 2008. She was a member of the Peabody Conservatory’s Piano Department from 1980 to 2000. The department, one of the most highly regarded in the world, currently has nine faculty members including Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Chair in Piano Leon Fleisher.
Though Schein has performed all over the world, she has never given a recital in Friedberg Hall. This was her request when asked how she would like to be celebrated as the 2012 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award, which will be presented at the concert. On the program are: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a, “Les Adieux”; Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58; Tarantella, Venezia e Napoli, from Book II of Liszt’s “Années de pèlerinage”; two of Rachmaninoff’s Études-tableaux, Op. 33; Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse; and Ravel’s Sonatine. A reception will follow the performance.
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About the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University
Located in the heart of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Cultural District, the Peabody Institute was founded in 1857 as America’s first academy of music by philanthropist George Peabody. Today, Peabody boasts a preeminent faculty, a nurturing, collaborative learning environment, and the academic resources of one of the nation’s leading universities, Johns Hopkins. Through its degree-granting Conservatory and its community-based Preparatory music and dance school, Peabody trains musicians and dancers of every age and at every level, from small children to seasoned professionals, from dedicated amateurs to winners of international competitions. Each year, Peabody stages nearly 100 major concerts and performances, ranging from classical to contemporary to jazz, many of them free — a testament to the vision of George Peabody.
