PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Greg Hambleton
Cumberland County College
(856) 692-8499
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2010

Acclaimed Pianist Matthew Bengtson to Perform Music of Mendelssohn, Albéniz and Chopin on May 8 at Cumberland County College

Acclaimed pianist Matthew Bengtson will present a recital of music by Felix Mendelssohn, Isaac Albéniz, and Frederic Chopin on Saturday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m., in the George P. Luciano Sr. Theatre, in the Frank Guaracini Jr. Fine and Performing Arts Center at Cumberland County College, Sherman Avenue and College Drive, Vineland, NJ.

The program, part of the college’s “The Joy of Music” series, will consist of Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses, Op. 54; four selections from Albéniz’s Iberia; and Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58.

Tickets are $10 for adults, and $5 for senior citizens as well as those under 18.

For more information on this concert, as well as the entire concert series, call the Box Office at (856) 692-8499.

Called by critics a “musician’s musician,” Bengtson has won respect and acclaim as a pianist, composer, analyst, and musical scholar and has been in demand as a soloist and collaborator. He has appeared at Cumberland County College several times in solo and chamber concerts.

As a La Gesse Fellow, he has presented concerts in France, Italy, and Hungary, at Thomas Jefferson’s home Monticello, and in solo recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. He has performed with the Reading, Pottstown, and Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared with famed violinist Joshua Bell on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and XM Satellite Radio’s Classical Confidential.

He performs on the piano, fortepiano, and harpsichord, as soloist and as collaborator, as in the newly formed Ensemble Aurelio and is involved in an extensive recording project of early English instruments for Griffin Renaissance Records. He also has an interest in early 20th-century piano music, especially that of Karol Szymanowski and Alexander Scriabin. He has recorded six of Scriabin’s piano sonatas for Romeo Records.

A participant in many American music festivals, Bengtson has performed as the Aspen Music Festival, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance (SICPP) at the New England Conservatory, and the Classical Workshop and Baroque Performance Institute (BPI) at Oberlin Conservatory.

Abroad, he studied at the Internationale Sommerakademie “Mozarteum” in Salzburg, Austria, the Centre Acanthes in Avignon, and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France. He performed Pierre Boulez’s Sonata No. 1 at Salzburg and, for his performances at Fontainebleau, he was awarded the Prix de la Ville de Fontainebleau.

Bengtson has won acclaim for scholarly articles published in music journals in this country and abroad. He teaches privately at the University of Pennsylvania and at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, and serves on the piano staff of the Curtis Institute of Music.

This concert is made possible through a grant from the Cumberland County Cultural and Heritage Commission, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and Cumberland County College.

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