Lander University's Emerging Keyboard Artist series continues on Thursday, Oct. 15, with a performance by Greenwood native Ethan Flowe.
Starting time is 8 p.m. in the Josephine B. Abney Cultural Center Auditorium. The performance is free and open to the public.
Flowe began playing the piano at the age of 13, working with local pianist Martha Beaudrot.
He made rapid progress. In the words of Lander professor emeritus of music Dr. Anthony Lenti, "he took off like a shot, like a rocket ship."
When he was 16, he won the $10,000 prize in the Genesis Piano Competition in Myrtle Beach. The next year, he won the Beverly K. Whitten scholarship in the Daniel Competition at Furman University.
After graduating from the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in 2010, he enrolled in the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he will graduate next May.
During the 2013-2014 school year, Flowe attended Lander. Lenti said Flowe impressed him not only with his "enormous talent" but also by the kindness he displayed when interacting with other students. "He's a very good kid," he said.
Asked to assess Flowe's gifts as a musician, Lenti said, "he's very fast, he's very clean."
According to Lenti, Flowe's artistry is also notable. "Just because you can play fast and loud is not an indication that you're a musician. He combines it with a good ear. He has wonderful control over sound, the ability to play everywhere from very, very soft to very, very loud. Ethan can make the piano whisper, he can make it scream, and he usually puts this to good use to demonstrate or to illustrate the emotional qualities of the music."
Flowe will play a challenging program that includes works by French composer Jean-Phillipe Rameau; Polish composer Frederic Chopin; Hungarian composer Franz Liszt and French composer Maurice Ravel.
Twelve years ago, Lenti and his wife, professor emeritus of music Dr. Marianne Lenti, established the Emerging Keyboard Artist series as a way of assisting deserving young artists. Since then, the series has featured performers from as far away as Russia, China, Korea, Romania and Venezuela.
"Now we've got a hometown boy," said Lenti. "We've enjoyed having visitors from foreign shores, but it's particularly exciting, the notion of having somebody from about a mile and a half away."