The Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts’ Festival of Fresno Pianists welcomes alumna and faculty member Maria Amirkhanian to California State University, Fresno for a concert with music professor Andreas Werz at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 23, at the Concert Hall on campus.
They will play a program of two-piano works by Khachaturian, Bartok, Rachmaninoff and Bernstein.
Joining the pianists on stage will be percussionists Matthew Darling, interim chair of the Fresno State Music Department, and Scott Ney, associate professor of music at the University of New Mexico.
Amirkhanian is a graduate of the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan, Armenia, who received her master’s degree from Fresno State after studying under Werz. She obtained a doctoral degree from the Moscow Conservatory in Russia and was appointed a lecturer in piano at Fresno State in 2005. She has won several competitions since taking up the piano as a 5-year-old.
In the fall, Amirkhanian will join the faculty at Gavilan Community College in Hollister.
Werz, who has concertized extensively in the United States, Europe and Asia, is artistic director of the Lorenz Keyboard Concert Series.
Darling’s performance résumé includes the Fresno Philharmonic, Music in the Mountains Summer Festival (Nevada City), San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Dionne Warwick and Chuck Berry. Ney has a similarly diverse performance background, which includes Music in the Mountains and orchestras in Washington, New Mexico and California.
Tickets for the April 23 concert are $10 general, $6 seniors and $4 students.
For ticket reservations and other information, please call 559.278.2337 or check the Web site wvvw.keyboardconcerts.cominew. page 10.htm
