Age-old works will be explored through sound and discussion during this evening's Keyboard Conversations.
Concert pianist Jeffrey Siegel will perform "Keyboard Conversations," a concert-plus-commentary, at 7:30 tonight in Schwab Auditorium.
The concert is presented by the Center for the Performing Arts (CPA).
This week's topic is "The Power and Passion of Beethoven." The performance will include commentary about the inspiration for each song before Siegel plays the piece in its entirety.
"The idea is to make the listening experience more focused and more meaningful and more accessible, both for the first time listener and for the avid music lover," Siegel said.
Tickets are $36 for adults, $26 for people 18 and younger, and $15 for University Park students.
Siegel studied at the Juilliard School in New York and has been a soloist with world-renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Moscow State Symphony and the New York Philharmonic.
Siegel chooses different music for each "Keyboard Conversa-tions" program. It's difficult to choose what to play, he said -- there are many beautiful pieces of music written for solo piano.
"This Beethoven program is a very special one. It has a piece of music that's known to every piano student that's called "Für Elise," and the question might be asked -- 'Who was Elise?' " Siegel said. "And, 'Why did Beethoven write this for Elise?' "
Siegel hopes to give the audience an answer. He'll also play Beethoven's "Moonlight" and "Les Adieux" sonatas and variations of "God Save the King."
The program will be a full concert, lasting a little more than an hour along with an intermission and question-and-answer session.
CPA director George Trudeau helped to develop the "Keyboard Conversations" series with Siegel when they worked at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, N.Y.
"When I came to Penn State, I had in the back of my mind that "Keyboard Conversations" might be a good fit here as well -- certainly in Schwab Auditorium, where we have a wonderful space for it," Trudeau said.
The program is sponsored by Bill and Honey Jaffe and Bud and Carol Rowell, who saw a "Keyboard Conversations" performance in Florida and suggested to Trudeau that the program come to Penn State, he said.
"When they found out I had a previous experience with it, all the stars aligned," Trudeau said.
