Master pianist Paul Lewis to round out season at Middlebury May 8

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. ? At 8 p.m. on Friday, May 8, in the Middlebury College Kevin P. Mahaney ‘84 Center for the Arts Concert Hall, pianist Paul Lewis will return once again to Middlebury. His program will include Schubert’s Impromptus opus 142 and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

Lewis is a long-time favorite of Middlebury audiences. One of his generation’s most sought-after musicians, he performs regularly at the world’s major musical venues and festivals and has appeared with such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Charles Mackerras, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Andrew Davis, Marin Alsop, Ivor Bolton, Daniel Harding, Adam Fischer, Richard Hickox, Emmanuel Krivine and Joseph Swensen.

He studied with Ryszard Bakst and Joan Havill before working privately with Alfred Brendel. He won several awards for his Schubert piano sonata series, presented at venues throughout the United Kingdom, including Wigmore Hall, and was the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award in 2003. His recordings for Harmonia Mundi have won many international recognition, including a “Diapason d’Or de l’Année” in 2002, two “Edison awards” in Holland in 2004 and 2005, and the “Gramophone Instrumentalist Award” in 2008. Between 2005 and 2007, he performed a complete cycle of the Beethoven piano sonatas at venues across Europe and North America, including performances at Middlebury College.

According to reviewer Geoffrey Norris of London’s Daily Telegraph, “Lewis is one of the exceptional artists who compels you to concentrate closely on the music, because his playing is so obviously the product not merely of acute stylistic instinct, but also of deep interpretative thought.”

Lewis’ performance is sponsored by the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series. The Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall is located on South Main Street (Route 30). Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for seniors. For tickets, call the Middlebury College Box Office at 802-443-6433. Online tickets and information are available at www.middlebury.edu/arts.