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Keys to Excellence series to feature Drake piano professor

Nicholas Roth
Nicholas Roth

Nicholas Roth, professor of piano at Drake University, will present the next concert in Drake University’s Keys to Excellence Piano Series. The free performance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30 in Sheslow Auditorium, 2507 University Ave.

The concert program features the following works:

Prelude and Fugue, Op. 29
Sergei Taneyev

Widmung, S. 566
Schumann/Liszt

Erlkönig, S. 588/4
Schubert/Liszt

Vallée d’Obermann from Années de
pèlerinage – Première année (Suisse)
Franz Liszt

Sonata No. 1 in d minor, Op. 28
Sergei Rachmaninov

Roth, a Yamaha Artist and Fellow of the American Pianists Association, is active internationally as a performer, teacher and adjudicator. He earned degrees from Indiana University, Michigan State University, and the Hochschule für Musik in Munich as a DAAD Scholar. He studied with Edward Auer, Michel Block, Helmut Deutsch, Emilio del Rosario, Elisso Virsaladze and Ralph Votapek. His recordings are available on Blue Griffin, Innova, MSR Classics, NAXOS, and Proximal Records.

During summer 2015, Roth was on the faculty of the Edward Auer Piano Workshop at the world-renown Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University and the Classical Music Festival Piano Seminar in Eisenstadt, Austria and embarked on a concert tour of Ecuador. In May 2016 he will teach and perform at Minzu University in Beijing, China, with Drake music faculty and students.

The Keys of Excellence concert series was created to raise awareness of Drake’s fundraising efforts for the purchase of 70 brand new Yamaha pianos for the music department. It brings internationally acclaimed artists to perform on the Yamaha CFX concert grand at Drake University.

The series is sponsored by Yamaha, West Music, Civic Music Association, and Drake University. For more information, contact Nicholas Roth at 515-321-5947 or Nicholas.Roth@Drake.edu

KEYS TO EXCELLENCE PIANO CONCERT SERIES 2015-16:

OCTOBER 26: Francine Kay – Princeton University

NOVEMBER. 30: Nicholas Roth – Drake University

FEBRUARY 8: Nicholas Phillips – University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

MARCH 28: Ani Gogova

APRIL 18: Daniel Shapiro – Cleveland Institute of Music.

All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. in Sheslow Auditorium and are free and open to the public.