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Sunday, February 04, 2024 | 5:30 pm

Garrick Ohlsson, piano

The Zarelda Fambrough Memorial Concert

Location: Shriver Hall

The Zarelda Fambrough Memorial Concert

Ohlsson is a pianist of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Renowned as a leading exponent of the music of Frédéric Chopin, he commands an enormous repertoire and is known for "incredible technique with razor-sharp accuracy, producing a sound so lush it almost glistens" (Seattle Times). He performs an unforgettable program of Beethoven, Chopin, and Mamlok, plus Schubert's "Wanderer" fantasy, and energetic tour-de-force that soars with symphonic power.  

"a vigorous, crisp and clear performance without a trace of Romantic excess" –The New York Times

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Garrick Ohlsson

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although long regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire ranging over the entire piano literature and he has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. To date, he has at his command more than 80 concertos, ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century.

In the 2018/19 season, he launched an ambitious project spread over two seasons exploring the complete solo piano works of Brahms in four different programs. The cycle will be heard in New York, San Francisco, Montreal, Los Angeles, London, and a number of cities across North America, culminating in Tanglewood, summer 2020. In concerto repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Brahms and Barber, he will return to the Nashville, Oregon, Dallas, Detroit, and Colorado Symphonies, concluding the 2019/20 season in Bellingham Festival of Music with all Beethoven concerti programmed over the course of three performances. Internationally he can be heard with orchestras in Seoul, Helsinki, Zagreb, Tallinn, Manchester, London, and Australia.

An avid chamber musician, Ohlsson has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo, and Takács string quartets, including most recently Boston Chamber Players on tour in Europe. Together with violinist Jorja Fleezanis and cellist Michael Grebanier, he is a founding member of the San Francisco-based FOG Trio. Passionate about singing and singers, Ohlsson has appeared in recital with such legendary artists as Magda Olivero, Jessye Norman, and Ewa Podleś. Ohlsson can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, Hyperion, and Virgin Classics labels.

A native of White Plains, N.Y., Garrick Ohlsson began his piano studies at the age of 8, at the Westchester Conservatory of Music; at 13 he entered The Juilliard School, in New York City. He has been awarded first prizes in the Busoni and Montreal Piano competitions, the Gold Medal at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1970), the Avery Fisher Prize (1994), the University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, MI (1998), the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music (2014), and the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit from the Polish Deputy Culture Minister.

Garrick Ohlsson’s website is garrickohlsson.com

"By almost any measure, Ohlsson is one of the great American pianists." —The Washington Post

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Sonata in F major, Op. 10, No. 2

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Ursula Mamlok (1923-2016)

Two Thousand Notes

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Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fantasy in C major, D. 760, "Wanderer "

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Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Impromptu in F-sharp major, Op. 36

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Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Op. 60

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Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Fantasy in F minor, Op. 49

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Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Scherzo in C-sharp minor, Op. 39

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Program Subject to Change Without Notice