Music
Pianist's career-long interest in Chopin
Columbia-bred Ganz is playing all Polish composer's works over 10 years
When Columbia-bred pianist Brian Ganz plays an all-Chopin program, he has a lot of keyboard knowledge at his fingertips. That certainly will be the case when he performs for the Sundays at Three concert series on Sunday at Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia.
Ganz, who is a regular performer in this series, will be playing the 19th-century Polish composer Frederic Chopin's Two Nocturnes, Op. 9; Twelve Etudes, Op. 10; Introduction and Variations on a German National Air, “Der Schweizerbub;” Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. Posth; Polonaise in G-sharp minor, Op. Posth.; and Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53, “Heroic.”
Considering that Chopin composed around 250 works, it is not difficult to put together an all-Chopin program. Indeed, this 56-year-old pianist has put together many such programs over the years.
His career-long interest in the composer has evolved into a formal plan. In 2010, Ganz embarked on a 10-year project to play the complete works of Chopin with the National Philharmonic at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. This project was initiated by Piotr Gajewski, the Polish-born founder and director of the National Philharmonic.
The seventh concert in that series, “Chopin: Young Genius,” will be given at Strathmore on Feb. 18.
Another testament to Ganz's Chopin expertise is that he was the artist-editor of the Schirmer Performance Edition of Chopin's Preludes in 2005.
That dedication to Chopin shows how Ganz's ties to local cultural venues are a vital aspect of his overall career. The Takoma Park-born pianist moved to Columbia at age 9. A graduate of the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Leon Fleisher, he got a career boost when he shared the first grand prize at the 1989 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Piano competition in Paris. Also gaining him attention was his winning third place in the 1991 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano competition.
Ganz has been on the Peabody Institute faculty since 2000. Another strong institutional tie is at St. Mary's College of Maryland. He has been associated with that liberal arts-oriented public college in Southern Maryland since 1986, where he is an artist-in-residence and member of the piano faculty.
Living in Annapolis definitely has helped with the mileage in terms of getting to North Bethesda, Columbia, Baltimore and St. Mary's City.
As a performer, he has enjoyed numerous appearances both close to home and much farther away. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the City of London Sinfonia. Conductors with whom he has worked include Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich and Marin Alsop.
Ganz, who made his recording debut in 1992, also has an audio presence for those who want to hear him in the comfort of their own homes.
All of this adds up to an intensely musical life. It's easy to understand why Brian Ganz especially likes a quotation by the British writer Aldous Huxley: “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
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