August 25, 2009

The 38th Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts season at California State University, Fresno opens at 8 p.m. Sept. 18 with Nareh Arghamanyan, a 20-year-old native of Armenia who placed first in the 2008 Montreal International Music Competition.

Arghamanyan also took the top prize at piano competitions in Pontoise, France; Valencia Spain; and Vienna, Austria. She has performed in the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Switzerland. She is a graduate of the Vienna Music Conservatory.

At Fresno State, she will perform works by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Rachmaninoff and also the concert suite from “The Nutcracker” by Tchaikovsky and Pletnev.

The concert is cosponsored by the university’s Armenian Studies Program.

Also on the Keyboard Concerts 2009-10 calendar:

• Oct. 7 – Haochen Zhang

• Oct. 23 – Garrick Ohlsson

• Jan. 10 – Arnaldo Cohen

• Feb. 5 – Mikhail Rudy

• March 17 – Horacio Gutiérrez

• April 11 – Carole Terry

• April 30 – Stephen Hough

Performances are in the Concert Hall of the Fresno State Music Building.

Keyboard Concerts also cosponsors special events during the year:

• Nov. 15 – The American recital debut of Belgian pianist Nikolaas Kende

• Feb. 26 – Pianist Vahan Mardirossian with cellist Alexander Chaushian

• May 9 – Pianists Day

• May 23 – Organists Day

Season tickets for the eight subscription events are $115 for general admission, $85 for seniors (62 and older) and $30 for students (K-12 or full-time college with ID). Tickets for individual concerts and the two special events concerts are available for $5-$18.

Ticket applications can be downloaded at www.keyboardconcerts.com or tickets can be purchased at the Music Department Box Office, adjacent to the Concert Hall entrance.

Information is available from series artistic director Andreas Wertz, a professor of piano at Fresno State. Call 559.278.2337 or e-mail andreasw@csufresno.edu.