(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Pianist Clipper Erickson will open the Westminster Conservatory 2017-2018 Faculty Recital Series with a performance titled “The Russian American Connection” on Sunday, September 17 at 3:00pm in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton. Admission is free.
The program will include music by Russian and American composers, including Modest Mussorgsky’s monumental Pictures at an Exhibition. Other works include David Finko’s Sonata No. 1, which was inspired by the Yiddish Jewish World and its culture, particularly by the Moscow State Jewish Theater and its leading actor Solomon Mikhoels; and Amy Beach’s Ballad, Op. 6. He will also perform Sonata Notturna, composed by Richard Brodhead for Clipper Erickson. The composer wrote about the work, “The sonata is cast as a series of night images, contrasting in character but closely related in their underlying material. Together, these images form a 15-minute musical span that contains strong elements of both variation and fantasy. ”
Following Clipper Erickson’s debut at age 19 in Los Angeles as soloist with the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra, the Los Angeles Times wrote: “He played with extraordinary dash and power and never let flamboyance obscure art.” Erickson went on to study at The Juilliard School, Yale University, and Indiana University, training with the renowned British pianist John Ogdon and Alexander Fiorillo, one of the few pupils of Vladimir Horowitz. Erickson has won top prizes at international competitions such as the Busoni and William Kapell, and he performs as soloist with orchestras throughout the United Sates, as well as recitalist in venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Hall, and Symphony Space in New York. His brilliant playing consistently receives raves, such as from the Washington Post, which wrote “Like a true heroic pianist, Erickson approached Liszt with power, precision and Romantic abandon … a take-no-prisoners rendition.”
In 2016, Gramophone UK honored Erickson’s recording, My Cup Runneth Over – the Complete Piano Works of R. Nathaniel Dett, as a critic’s choice and best album of the year, writing: “this historically and musically important release not only fills a crucial catalogue gap but sets reference standards. No serious aficionado of the history of American piano music can afford to miss it.” American Record Guide agreed: “Erickson is simply a fabulous pianist.”
Learn more about this performance at www.rider.edu/arts or by calling 609-921-2663. Westminster Choir College is located at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Walnut Lane in Princeton.
