Gershwin tribute to be featured at ‘Stagestruck’

Staff Report

A tribute to George Gershwin that includes two of his considered masterpieces will be included in the set of the Eastern Symphony Orchestra concert on Feb. 25.

Music professor Jonathan Bowman will perform “An American in Paris” and “Rhapsody in Blue” as part of this concert at 4 p.m. in the Dvorak Concert Hall of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

In addition to the Gershwin tribute, the concert will feature music professor and pianist Paul Johnston performing his two original compositions, “Nocturne” and “Suite for Piano and Orchestra,” according to a press release. Eliot Crispin on bass and Craig Buckner on drums will accompany Johnston on the second composition.

2018 Concerto winner pianist Albert Maizel will also perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2.”

A transfer student, Maizel was born in eastern Russia in 1993 and moved to Israel when he was three years old. He began taking classical piano lessons when he was six. He studied at the Hassadna Music Conservatory in Jerusalem and the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University. Albert came to Eastern in Fall 2016 to study piano performance with Bowman.

Tickets for the Eastern Symphony Orchestra’s Stagestruck concert are $13 for general admission, $11 for seniors 62 years and older and $5 for students. They can be purchased online at www.doudnatix.com or at the Doudna Fine Arts Center Box Office. Box Office hours are Tuesday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and one hour before a scheduled performance.

The News desk can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].