John Owings Pays Homage To Chopin Feb. 14

by Richard Veit

Pianist John Owings, professor of music at Texas Christian University, will perform an all-Chopin recital at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14, in Roxy Grove Hall on the campus of Baylor University. This recital, postponed from last November due to the pianist's illness, is in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the composer's death.
A native of Texas, Owings developed his piano skills as a Fulbright Scholar at London's Royal College of Music and in Switzerland and Italy before transferring his studies to The Juilliard School of Music in New York City. His teachers include renowned performers such as Rosina Lhévinne, Géza Anda and Wilhelm Kempff.
He won first prize in the 1975 Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition in Cleveland, Ohio. Other awards include the 1968 London Liszt Society Competition and the Musical Arts Competition in Chicago in 1980.
Owings has performed recitals in major cities of the United States, Europe and the Far East. Koch International Classics has released his two most recent compact disc recordings, The American Piano (piano sonatas by Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter) and The Unpublished Manuscripts of Quincy Porter (with violinist Fritz Gearhart).
Since making his orchestral debut with the San Antonio Symphony at the age of 15, Owings has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Denver Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Boston Pops and the English Chamber Orchestra, among many others.
His all-Chopin program at Baylor will consist of the Ballade No. 2, a set of three mazurkas, one of the nocturnes, the Scherzo No. 3 and the Barcarolle, Op. 60. Concluding the recital will be a performance of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor.
This recital is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.