April 11, 2003

MIDDLEBURY, VT - Pianist Arnaldo Cohen, a favorite of Middlebury College audiences, returns for the grand finale to this season’s performing arts series with a concert at 8 p.m., Friday, April 25, in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall on South Main Street (Route 30).

His program for the evening will include pieces by Liszt and Chopin along with selections from a group of Brazilian piano pieces he has recorded.

Born in Brazil to Russian parents, Cohen began his musical studies at age five. He graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro with degrees in piano, violin and engineering. He started his career as a violinist with the Rio de Janeiro Opera House Orchestra but was encouraged to pursue piano. He continued his studies in Vienna and went on in 1972 to win first prize in the Busoni International Piano Competition.

In the 30 years since, Cohen, who now lives in London, has become a fixture on the European and South American concert stage. His schedule includes solo recitals, appearances with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, and performances with smaller ensembles such as the Amadeus Piano Trio and the Lindsay Quartet.

Relatively obscure to American audiences until the late 1990s, Cohen has since thrilled music lovers with performances in New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Atlanta as well as smaller towns such as Middlebury.

Concertgoers appreciate Cohen’s maturity onstage and the depth of his expression at the keyboard. “This is a fabulous talent,” wrote the San Francisco Chronicle in 2001, describing Cohen’s “sweeping, if not infallible, technique, his energetic attack, his sheer impetuosity and his gift for mining contrasts at their most extreme and most revealing.”

During the same year, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution declared, “He is debonair at the keyboard, and he is wise. … Cohen appeared to be having fun, as if he were composing the music himself right on the spot.”

After a recital of Bach, Chopin and Liszt, the New York Post noted that the audience “cheered itself hoarse.”

In 2001, Cohen recorded “Three Centuries of Brazilian Music” with the Swedish label Bis Records. His other recordings include works by Liszt, Schumann and Brahms.

The upcoming concert is sponsored by the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series.

Reserved seating tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for seniors. A pre-performance dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Rehearsals Cafe in the Center for the Arts. Reservations are required. For tickets or dinner reservations, contact the College Box Office at 802-443-6433. Online tickets and information are available at www.middlebury.edu/cfa.