Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Jeffrey Siegel’s Keyboard Conversations® Series Continues with Chopin the Storyteller at the Kimmel Center, January 18

DECEMBER 16, 2009

"Jeffrey Siegel has everything: massive technique, musical sensitivity and character, wide tonal resources, immense reserves of power, and the ability to communicate.” –Los Angeles Times

Acclaimed pianist and music educator Jeffrey Siegel continues his Keyboard Conversations® series with a program entitled Chopin the Storyteller on Monday, January 18, 2010 at 7:30pm in Perelman Theater. Continuing his yearlong celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin, Siegel explores the life and work of Chopin, whose works remain enduring masterpieces of 19th Century Romanticism. Jeffrey Siegel presents an evening of musical narratives, including three of Chopin’s Ballades, as well as a Novelette by Chopin’s contemporary Robert Schumann, another great Romantic composer.

Now in his 40th season of presenting Keyboard Conversations®, Jeffrey Siegel continues to bring both novice and advanced classical music connoisseurs to a richer understanding and appreciation for works by celebrated composers with his engaging concert-plus-commentary format. Siegel has performed this series in over 25 cities from New York to Los Angeles. Most recently, Siegel was invited to return to London’s venerable Wigmore Hall with a three-program series following last season's successful debut.

"His performances were expressive and full of passion! This is an artist who means every note he plays.” –New York Times

This is the second concert in the Keyboard Conversations® series during the 2009/10 season. The next concert in the series will be Chopin and the Future on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 7:30pm.

Tickets for are Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations® are available for $30 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office, open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.

A limited number of $10 community rush tickets will be available for this performance. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning at 5:30pm prior to evening curtain time. Limit one ticket per person.

“Insightful and poetically interpreted, both in words and music.” –Washington Post

“The Leonard Bernstein of the piano—Siegel’s programs strengthen the bonds between the music and the listener and are as welcome as they are rare.” –Chicago Tribune

Jeffrey Siegel has been a soloist with the world's great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, all the major London orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and many others. As a conductor, he has collaborated with luminaries such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Neeme Järvi, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman, among others. He has led the Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, The Minnesota Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as orchestras in France, Scandinavia and South America.  

In June 2006, Siegel released four CDs of Keyboard Conversations®: Mozart and Friends, The Power and Passion of Beethoven, The Romanticism of the Russian Soul and The Romance of the Piano (Random House Audio Publishing Group). Most recently, Siegel released a new CD entitled Music for the Young - and Young At Heart (2009), available exclusively at his concerts.

Kimmel Center Presents 2009/10 Season is sponsored by Citi. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents.

Free at the Kimmel programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.

The Kimmel Center is a recipient of partnership funding through the nationally recognized PNC “Grow Up Great” initiative, a ten-year, $100 million investment preparing children for success in school and life. Funding gives support to the Kimmel Center’s early childhood program “Bop and Swing,” an arts program for children 1-5 years old, designed to promote an appreciation for American culture.

KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS SPONSORED BY CITI

Monday, January 18, 2010 | 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations®
Chopin the Storyteller

CHOPIN: Ballade, No. 2 in F major, Op. 38
SCHUMANN: Novelette in D, Op. 21, No. 4
CHOPIN: Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52
-Intermission-
CHOPIN: Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23
CHOPIN: Ballade No. 3 in A-flat, Op. 47

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