KNOXVILLE — David Northington, professor in the School of Music at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will treat audiences to a taste of the works of Aaron Copland.
Northington’s piano recital will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, at the Music Hall of the School of Music. The recital is free and open to the public and parking will be available at the Music Building.
Northington presently is in the process of recording the complete piano works of Copland for Centaur Records, with whom he has previously recorded a CD of the Chopin waltzes.
Copland was an American composer of concert and film music as well as an accomplished pianist who passed away in 1990. He was widely known as “the dean of American composers.” In 1964, Copland was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson. He was awarded the New York Music Critics’ Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize in composition for “Appalachian Spring.” His scores for “Of Mice and Men” (1939), “Our Town” (1940) and “The North Star” (1943) all received Academy Award nominations, while “The Heiress” won Best Music in 1950.
Northington, an accomplished pianist as well, has been hailed as “an immensely gifted musician…who combines the technical mastery of a virtuoso with the musical sensitivity of a poet” by the New York Times. His pianism has won him first prizes in the Concert Artists Guild Competition, the East/West Artists Competition, the American Music Scholarship Association’s International Competition, the unanimous Judges Prize at the Fourth Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and selection to the Artistic Ambassador Program sponsored by the United States Information Agency.
Since receiving his degrees at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Yale University School of Music, Northington has taught at several universities. His many teaching awards include the Tennessee Music Teachers Association’s Teacher of the Year Award and the Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts “Outstanding Teacher Award.” Northington also has been the recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Artist of the Year Award.
The School of Music offers more than 180 concerts a year, most of them free. For more information about this and future events, visit http://www.music.utk.edu/events or call 865-974-5678.
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C O N T A C T :
Kristi Hintz, (865-974-3993, khintz@utk.edu)