Greg Stepanich

Bulletin board: News on the piano, organ and chorus fronts

A bulletin board entry today, to take note of some upcoming concerts and other musical matters:

On the piano front: Abram Kreeger has three concerts coming up in the next few months at the Steinway Gallery in Boca.

On Sept. 25, it's the American pianist Koji Attwood, a graduate of Curtis and Juilliard whose bio touts his dedication to contemporary music and features an impressive list of positive reviews.

Elsewhere on the Web, there's attention paid to his performances of music by Anatol Liadov and Scriabin, and he's credited with an arrangement of the Vladimir Horowitz version of Liszt's Rakoczy March, so he's got some affinity with the Russian virtuoso wing of pianism. No program details yet, except that there will be something by Schumann.

On Nov. 20, a concert by the Chinese-American pianist Qi Liu, who's appeared here before in the Palm Beach International Invitiational Piano Competition. Program hasn't been set, but here she is playing the third movement of a piano suite by a young (25) French composer named Francis Kayali. The music's fairly derivative, but there's some fleet fingerwork by this pianist.

On Dec. 10, a performance by the Duo Scarbo. Formerly known as Duo Hammel-Sanchez, they consist of the Puerto Rican pianist Elena Hammel and the Spanish pianist Laura Sanchez. Here's a bit from the Ritual Fire Dance of Manuel de Falla, from a performance in 2002. I like the musicality of this performance excerpt, so I'll be interested to hear how they sound live.

On the organ front: The last of the four Sunday afternoon organ concerts at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach. William Brian Davey of St. Gregory's Episcopal in Boca, Daniel Copher of All Saints Episcopal in Fort Lauderdale, and Mark Jones of First Presbyterian in Pompano Beach are performing; the program includes the so-called St. Anne Prelude and Fugue in E-flat (BWV 552) of Bach, as well as pieces by Petr Eben and Saint-Saëns. The concert starts at 2 p.m.

On the audition front: The Delray Beach Chorale is holding auditions for singers from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 10 and 11 at the First Presbyterian Church at 33 Gleason St. in Delray. You need to be able to sight-read, and rehearsals start Sept. 13. The chorale lists two numbers for information: (561) 865-3354 and (954) 486-9149.

On their holiday program, scheduled for Dec. 11, are the Gloria of Vivaldi, an early Magnificat by a teenage Franz Schubert, and seasonal works.

All of which reminds us that the musical season will be here before we know it.