San Juan Symphony to present Robert DeGaetano in Adams Foundation Piano Recital  

 Internationally renowned pianist Robert DeGaetano will conclude the San Juan Symphony’s 2009-2010 Adams Foundation Piano Recital Series with a performance on Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 3 p.m. at the Community Concert Hall at FortLewisCollege in Durango, CO.  Ticket prices range from $15 – $25 and may be obtained by calling the Community Concert Hall at 970-247-7657.   The program for the afternoon will include Chopin’s Scherzo in C-sharp Minor, Schumann’s Fantasie in C Major, three Rachmaninov Preludes, Liszt’s Liebestraum, Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major as well as an original composition entitled Crystonyx.  

Pianist and composer Robert DeGaetano has performed to widespread acclaim as a soloist and with orchestras in concerts throughout this country and abroad. He has received accolades from both critics and audiences alike for his commanding and virtuosic interpretations of masterpieces of the keyboard repertoire. In recent years, he has devoted increasing time to composing and performing his own works, which have been praised for their deeply felt intensity and striking originality.  

A New York native, Robert DeGaetano graduated from The Juilliard School and was the first musician ever to be awarded a Rotary International Scholarship. His orchestral debut took place with the San Antonio Symphony in 1971, and he made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1975. During the 1970s and 80s he toured all fifty states and the major music capitals of Europe. In addition to solo recitals, he has been a guest soloist with orchestras across the country, including those in Pittsburgh, Dallas, Indianapolis, Denver, New Orleans, San Antonio, San Diego and the Boston Pops, among others.  

In 1986, Robert DeGaetano emerged as a composer with the premiere of his Piano Sonata No. 1. As a result of the overwhelming critical praise for this work, he was commissioned by Michigan’s Jackson Symphony Orchestra to compose his Piano Concerto which he premiered in 1988. The Challenger, written in tribute to the seven astronauts killed in the 1986 space shuttle tragedy, was commissioned by Miss Alice Tully and premiered in 1987 at LincolnCenter in the presence of the astronauts’ families, with the composer at the piano. The premiere was filmed live for television and featured on a special segment of “CBS Sunday Morning” with Charles Kuralt.  

For more information, call 970-382-9753 or visit:  www.sanjuansymphony.org.