Bureau County Republican

IVSO will present music of Schumann and Respighi on May 13

Featured soloist is Joseph Stern Kingma

OGLESBY — Lucia Matos will return to the stage at the Illinois Valley Community College Cultural Centre at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 13, to present the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra in a concert featuring the music of Schumann and Respighi.

The featured soloist will be pianist Joseph Stern Kingma, who has been praised as “spell-binding,” “poetic” and “flawless and expressive” by conductors and concert presenters across the United States. He brings to the stage of the Cultural Arts Centre an outstanding resume of performances across the United States, which include appearances with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Manassas Symphony, Illinois Valley Symphony and the Brazos Chamber Orchestra. He has also competed in numerous international competitions, winning Audience Favorite in Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2015 Cincinnati World Piano Competition. As a semi-finalist in the 2012 New Orleans Piano Competition, the Musical Arts Society of New Orleans blog applauded his “dazzling technique.”

Kingma is in the final year of his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Rice University, where he studied under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Roux. A committed teacher, he is the assistant professor of piano at the Louisiana College in Pineville/Alexandria, La., where he teaches piano and piano-related courses. He currently lives in Alexandria, La., with his wife, Rebecca, and their dog, Spunky.

Kingma will perform the Schumann "Concerto for Piano in A Minor." The Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra and Kingma will lead listeners to agree that Schumann’s piano concerto stands as one of the most famous of the Romantic era concertos, a beautiful work from beginning to end. The music critic David Frances Tovey said, “Every note inspires affection … Fashion and musical politics have tried to play games with Schumann’s reputation, but works like this remain irresistible.”

The concert will also include Elgar’s "Chanson de Nuit" and "Pines of Rome" by Ottorino Respighi, who is identified with the musical past, writing modern compositions of old Italian music. Respighi is most famous for composing a trilogy of tone poems between 1917 and 1928 in which he interpreted three different facets of Rome: its fountains, pines and festivals. These works were responsible for encouraging Italian composers to write more symphonic works.

Admission to the concert is by season subscription or individual ticket, available at the door, or online at ivso.org. Adult tickets are $15; students K-college are $5 with an ID. Sponsors for this concert include Illinois Cement Co., Maze Lumber, and season sponsor Ning Communications. This concert is partially sponsored by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. The auditorium is handicapped accessible.