Middlebury College celebrates Mozart's birthday with a free lecture and concert on Jan. 20

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - In celebration of the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on Jan. 27, Middlebury College will host a lecture and piano recital on Friday, Jan. 20. At 4:30 p.m., Neal Zaslaw, Herbert Gussman Professor of Music at Cornell University, will speak on “History in Mozart - Mozart in History” in the conference room of the Robert A. Jones ‘59 House on Hillcrest Road off College Street (Route 125). At 8 p.m., pianist Leopoldo Erice of Stony Brook University will give a piano recital in the Concert Hall in the Center for the Arts on South Main Street (Route 30). Both events are free and open to the public.

[Note: Another concert, this one featuring pianist Dejan Lazic, takes place at Middlebury on Mozart’s actual birthday, Jan. 27.]

Neal Zaslaw holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Harvard and Columbia Universities. Dubbed “Mr. Mozart” by the New York Times for organizing the 1991-1992 Mozart Bicentennial at Lincoln Center, he is the author of more than 65 articles on music and music history as well as several books, including “Mozart’s Symphonies: Context, Performance Practice, Reception.” A member of the Academy for Mozart Research in Salzburg and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Zaslaw is currently revising the “Köchel Verzeichnis” - the chronological catalogue of all of Mozart’s works - which will be published under the title “The New Köchel.”

Leopoldo Erice’s recital will include works by Mozart, Haydn and Schubert. Born in Madrid, Spain, Erice began his piano studies at the age of six. He graduated with honors in both piano and chamber music from the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, and obtained the degree of Master of Music in Piano from Indiana University in Bloomington. The winner of several prizes in prestigious national competitions, he has participated in festivals and master classes with artists such as Alicia de Larrocha, Joaquín Achúcarro, Jeff Cohen, Håkan Hagegård, Janos Starker, Miriam Fried, Edward Auer, John Wustman, Roger Vignoles and Norman Shetler. He appears both as a soloist and as an accompanist to singers on a regular basis in the United States and in Europe.

The lecture and recital were organized by Middlebury College’s Rohatyn Center for International Affairs and the Middlebury College Departments of German and Music.

For further information, contact event organizers Charlotte Tate at 802-443-5795 or Bettina Matthias at 802-443-3248.