The fourth annual piano series presented by the Champaign County Arts Council has been renamed this year to be more inclusive of other instruments.
“The new ‘Sunday Series’ will feature guitarist Jim McCutcheon, as well as pianists Sam Reich and Taylor Wang. The Arts Council hopes to feature a wider variety of instruments, music and artists to appeal to our audiences,” Executive Director Heather Brackney said.
All concerts will be held at the Arts Council, 119 Miami St., Urbana.
Sponsors of the 2016 Sunday Series are Sally L. Johnson and Charles & Joan Stadler.
Tickets are $15 each or $30 for the entire series. Tickets are available online or at the Arts Council office, 119 Miami St., Urbana.
The first concert, featuring guitarist Jim McCutcheon, will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 6. This concert is supported by an Anonymous donor.
After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Jim McCutcheon went back to school to study music and received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Wright State University. He is currently a faculty associate at Wright State and Artist in Residence at the University of Dayton. He and his wife have owned McCutcheon Music in Centerville, Ohio, since 1988. He is known to children as “The Guitar Man” and specializes in teaching young students, age 7 and up. His styles include classical, folk, finger style, jazz and banjo.
Pianist Sam Reich will return for his second performance in our series at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 10. Reich last performed in our series in 2013. This concert is sponsored by Marty and Lynn Reich.
Sam Reich is actively performing solo and chamber music in the United States, Europe and South America. Recent performances include concerts for the Ohio Arts Council, the Bogota International Piano Festival, the Costa Rica International Piano Festival, and the Ritsos Project in Greece. Reich is a graduate of Eastman School of Music where he served as a teaching assistant and accompanist. His teachers include T. J. Lymenstull, Jean Barr, Barry Snyder and Thomas Schumacher.
The season will end with a concert by pianist Taylor Wang at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 15.
The 13-year-old pianist and composer started to play the piano with her mother at the age of three. She made her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of nine after she won the gold and grand prizes in the World Piano Competition in 2011. In 2012, she competed in the American Association for the Development of the Gifted and Talented International Young Gifted Musicians Festival “Passion of Music” and won the gold medal with scholarship. Locally, Wang made her symphonic debut with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra as a soloist at the age of ten and previously performed in our Piano Series in 2014. Currently she studies piano performance with Sergei Polusmiak.
This program is also made possible by the Ohio Arts Council, which helps fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
For more information, call the Arts Council at 937-653-7557.
