The Program

Beethoven:  Piano Sonata in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2
Beethoven:  Piano Sonata in F-sharp Major, Op. 78
Beethoven:  Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106, "Hammerklavier"

The Artist

A student of Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski at the Curtis Institute of Music, Seymour Lipkin won the prestigious Rachmaninoff Competition at age 19. He went on to appear with all of America"s "top five" orchestras: The New York Philharmonic (several times), the Boston Symphony (repeatedly), the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago, as well as many other major American ensembles. Extremely active in chamber music, Mr. Lipkin has performed at the Marlboro festival, the Spoleto festivals (both in Italy and the US) and the Norfolk Festival. He has performed with Jascha Heifetz (60 concert tour), Oscar Shumsky, Uto Ughi, Arnold Steinhardt, William Primrose, David Soyer and Lawrence Lesser, and toured the U.S., Europe and South America with the Guarneri Quartet. For many years, Mr. Lipkin concentrated on conducting (he studied with Serge Kouseevitzky and George Szell). After serving as New York Philharmonic"s assistant conductor, he was Music Director of both the Long Island Symphony and the Joffrey Ballet. Returning to extensive concertizing as a pianist, he has earned particular acclaim for his Beethoven cycles, which have encompassed not only the five concertos and the thirty-two piano sonatas, but the ten violin sonatas and the five cello sonatas as well. Recently he has performed a cycle of the complete piano sonatas of Schubert. Mr. Lipkin is currently the Artistic Director of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and is on the faculties of both the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. He was formerly director of the University of Maryland"s International Piano Festival and William Kapell Piano Competition. For more information on Seymour Lipkin, visit www.seymourlipkin.com.