Jeffrey Siegel Keyboard Conversations® 2008/2009 Arvada Center Season Announcement

"An exquisite performance… superb music making.
This was an achievement of a sort seldom heard."
– The New York Times

ARVADA, CO – The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities welcomes back Jeffrey Siegel, world-renowned concert pianist and conductor, for his 21st season of Keyboard Conversations® concerts. This year, the concerts are set for Wednesday, September 3 and Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 7:30 p.m., as well as Wednesday, March 4 and Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. All performances are held in the Main Stage Theater. A description and schedule for the upcoming season follows:

The Power and Passion of Chopin
Chopin for lovers! Featuring one of the most popular and beloved composers of all time, the first program of the season includes music inspired by the various women in the Chopin's love life! Bring a significant other and enrich your life with passionate romantic music! This program offers some of the most popular melodies ever written—heroic Polonaises, vivacious Waltzes, dreamy Nocturnes and rhapsodic Preludes, as well as Chopin's famous Fantasy Impromptu.
Wednesday, September 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Basking in Beethoven
Luxuriate in the many moods of this incomparable composer! This concert may prompt some unanswered questions with Bagatelle in A minor; most popularly known as Für Elise (Who was Elise?), and his Farewell Sonato in E Flat. (Who was leaving and why has Beethoven so deeply affected?) This program also includes the tuneful simplicity of the Minuet in G (a work known to every piano student – and parent of a piano student!); the stormy Prestissimo, Opus 2, No. 1; the haunting, brooding Largo mesto, Opus 10, No. 3; and his humorous and inventive variations on God Save the King.
Wednesday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m.

The Longevity of the Short Piece
Bite-size musical jewels and gems—masterpieces in miniature. This concert features Mendelssohn's beloved Songs without Words; Grieg's descriptive Lyric Pieces, among them the festive Wedding Day at Troldhaugen; Brahms' rousing Rhapsodies (his last composition for the piano); Stravinsky's Circus Polka (written for a group of elephants!), Sibelius' elegiac Evergreen; the Latin melodies and rhythms of Granados' Spanish Dance and Ginastera's Sonata; and Tchaikovsky's Noctornes.
Wednesday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m.

Musical Pictures
Inspiring sights in glorious sound! The final concert of the season is sure to create visions in your mind as you listen to the sonic splendor of Rachmaninoff's ultra-romantic Etudes Tableaux, one exhilarating, the other turbulent and darkly expressive; Debussy's impressionistic Voiles, in which tones seem to float; and Mussorgsky's celebrated Pictures at an Exhibition, heard often as an orchestral work, but originally written for the piano.
Wednesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Jeffrey Siegel's concerts are unique in that he speaks engagingly with wit and insight about the classical music and its composer before performing each piece in its entirety. Captivating entertainment for music novices and seasoned listeners, each piece is concluded with a lively question and answer session with the audience.

Jeffrey Siegel has served as a soloist for many of the world's great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked alongside some of the finest conductors of our time, including James Levine, Lorin Maazel and Michael Tilson Thomas. Despite a busy schedule of Keyboard Conversations® performances, he continues to perform with orchestras around the globe.

Subscriptions to see all four concerts in the popular series are available for $95 - $110. A limited number of single tickets are available for $28 - $32 per concert. Tickets sell fast, order yours today by calling the Arvada Center box office at (720) 898-7200 or visiting arvadacenter.org.

The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities is one of the metro area's largest cultural attractions, devoted to all aspects of the arts and generously supported by the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). For more information about the 2008/2009 Keyboard Conversations® season , call the Arvada Center box office at (720) 898-7200 or visit arvadacenter.org. Discover the Arvada Center and find music, theater, art, poetry, dance, comedy and lots of family fun!

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