The College of Southern Maryland will open the 2014-15 Ward Virts Concert Series with classical pianist Brian Ganz at 3 p.m., Oct. 5. Ganzs performance is the first of six in the series, all which are held at the Prince Frederick Campus, 115 J.W. Williams Road, Prince Frederick in the Multipurpose Room of Building B. The season opener is a memorial concert dedicated to the series namesake Ward Virts, a talented Southern Maryland pianist who passed away suddenly in 1993.
Ganz is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. A graduate of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, he has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic (of Russia), the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, the National Philharmonic and the City of London Sinfonia, among others.
Ganz has been fulfilling a ten-year project, Extreme Chopin, in which he will perform the well over 200 complete works by Frédéric Chopin at the Music Center of Strathmore in Bethesda since 2011.
A self-described active explorer of the many ways in which the study and performance of great music can remind us of the Spirit that unites all living things, Ganz is a longtime student of the book A Course in Miracles and is an ardent seeker on the spiritual path. He has donated numerous performances in benefit concerts and is a founding member of the Washington Chapter of Artists to End Hunger.
Ganz is on the piano faculty at the Peabody Conservatory and at St. Marys College of Maryland. He is the artist-editor of the Schirmer Performance Edition of Chopins Preludes (2005).
The Ward Virts Concert Series is presented by sponsors Dr. and Mrs. Henry Virts, Edward and Patricia Mehosky, The Southern Maryland Chain Chapter of The Links, Inc., Stovy and Anne Brown, Exelon Generation-Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and the CSM Foundation.
Admission is free and seating is open but limited. For information, contact 443-550-6011, rfleming@csmd.edu or www.csmd.edu/Arts.The complete schedule for the 2014-15 Ward Virts series is Brian Ganz (piano), Oct. 5; Bruce Swaim Quartet (jazz), Nov. 2; Eliza Garth (piano), Feb. 8; Holly Roadfeldt (piano), March 1; Jeremy Koch (saxophone) and Yu-Husuan Liao (piano), April 12; Blue Mountain Ensemble, May 3.