Dual Pianos Highlight Lander University Piano Ensemble Concert March 5 in Cultural Center Auditorium

The Lander University Piano Ensemble will present its annual concert on Thursday, March 5, at 8 p.m. in the Josephine B. Abney Cultural Center. The concert is free and open to the public.

Audience members will be treated to performances that include two players at one piano, two players at two pianos and four players at two pianos.

This year's concert will showcase the works and talents of Joseph Chabek, of Anderson; Kelsie Detweiler, of Abbeville; Rakim Jefferson, of Gaffney; Lindsey Maloney, of Rock Hill; Marcus McPherson, of Orangeburg; Brandon Pendergrass, of Gray Court; Destinee Simpson, of Anderson; and Savannah Wideman, of Ninety Six.

Drs. Robert Kelly and Anthony Lenti, co-instructors for the ensemble, will also perform, as will Terri Burgin (mother of Detweiler); Lander alumna and local church musician, Anne-Marie Kemp, and her musical partner, Carol Johnson, also a church musician. Lander international students LeiLei Li and GuangQi Wang, both of Shanghai, China, will also perform.

The ensemble's purpose at Lander is to give pianists, whom Lenti called "essentially solitary folks," the "opportunity to make music with others." Playing with another person, as Lenti puts it, "is one thing. Playing with three other people at one time is an entirely different skill."

The mother-daughter team of Burgin and Detweiler will open the concert with a two-piano piece. Other selections include:

• Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert-the two major composers who contributed the most to piano ensemble music
• Three excerpts from "Pictures at an Exhibition of Modeste Mussorgsky" - a set of pieces inspired by a visit by Mussorgsky to a memorial exhibition of paintings by Victor Hartman
• Four American folk songs including, "Wayfaring Stranger," "Camptown Races," "Billy Boy," and "Pop! Goes the Weasel"
• A highly dramatic pair of pieces by Edvard Grieg thought to be sketches for a symphony that he left unfinished
• Brief pieces depicting children playing soldier and skating.

For more information about the Piano Ensemble's performance at Lander, call 864-388-8349 or visit www.lander.edu.