Pianist Joel Fan Works With Young Musicians at Music Academy of North Carolina

The New York Times says Joel Fan's piano playing has a “…powerful touch and big sound with the sparkle and rhythmic suppleness of a jazz improviser”. That suppleness enables him to take on a huge variety of musical styles from Beethoven's Triple Concerto performances alongside Yo-Yo Ma and Jonathan Gandelsman to new works like Derek Bermel's Funk Studies.  Joel's appreciation for composition grew from his longtime mentor, the late American composer/pianist Leon Kirchner who died in 2009. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and his music were at the center of Joel's recent CD Leon Kirchner Revelations on Verdant World Records which we sample today now. This is Kirchner's last work The Forbidden. Joel Fan spoke with David Ford by phone from his studio in New York.

 

On Friday, November 8th at 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM Joel will be on the Music Academy of North Carolina campus with master classes and outreach for the students and faculty there in Performance Hall. Then on Saturday night, November 9th at 7:30 PM at the Sloan Theatre of Greensboro Day School, it'll be Joel's fundraising concert for the Academy followed by a reception and meet and greet.