By Joan C. McKinney, director of university communications
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. –Pianist Philip Amalong will be returning to CampbellsvilleUniversity for a guest recital Thursday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. in The Gheens Recital Hall of the Gosser Fine Arts Center.
Amalong presented a “spectacular program” at CU in 2004, according to Dr. Wesley Roberts, professor of music. His program will include literature by Handel, Beethoven, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Antheil, Harris and Rorem.
The public is invited to the free recital.
Amalong will present a master class with university piano students in The Gheens Recital Hall from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, Feb. 23.
Amalong performs a diverse repertoire as both a soloist and collaborator. He appears regularly with the ensemble Conundrum and is a frequent collaborator with instrumentalists and vocalists throughout the United States.
His collaborative career has included recital performances with violinist Xiang Gao, cellist Terry King, Mark Gould (Principal Trumpet, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), William VerMeulen (Principal Horn, Houston Symphony), Richard Hawley (Principal Clarinet,Cincinnati Symphony) and David Anderson (Principal Bass, Louisiana Philharmonic.) Amalong has performed with the Razbia Ensemble, a chamber group formed for theresidency program of Chamber Music America, and has also played and recorded with theCincinnati Symphony and Pops, the Fort Wayne Symphony and the Dayton Philharmonic.He performs in various cities throughout the U.S. and has played in Germany, CzechRepublic, France and Italy. In 2002 he appeared at the IBLA Festival in Newcastle UponTyne, U.K. as part of an international group of performers celebrating the city’s culturalrenaissance performing both as soloist and with renowned soprano Yana Eminova.Amalong’s recordings can be heard on the Eroica, Albany, Titanic and Sowash labels.Since performing the works of composer Rick Sowash on recent releases (Eroica, Sanctuaryat 3AM), he has become one of the most frequently heard pianists of a living Americancomposer’s music on classical radio in the U.S. His solo piano disc, Storia released inOctober 2003 on Eroica, has received critical acclaim in such publications as AmericanRecord Guide, MusicWeb International and Music and Vision Daily.
Amalong and Storia were featured on MusicalOnline’s Web Concert Hall (www.webconcerthall.com) in March through May, 2004. Released in January 2005 is the critically acclaimed American Souvenir, an Albany Records disc of 20th Century works for flute and piano with flutist Jeannine Dennis. In August 2005, Titanic Records released 20th Century Romantic a disc of sonatas for violin and piano with violinist Gerald Itzkoff of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Another aspect of Amalong’s musical work is his composing, both of concert music and of commercial scores for television and film productions. For television, he has composed or collaborated on underscores and featured songs for many of the daytime dramas including Guiding Light, All My Children and The Young and the Restless and for HGTV programs.
His music has been heard as background to the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe awards, and many television and film productions worldwide. Recently, he has worked with independent film directors, scoring short films for festival presentations.
His playing can be heard on the PBS television special “Ohio,” produced by Ken Burns’ company Florentine Films featuring chamber music of Rick Sowash. He has composed numerous songs and instrumental works for performance, among them a setting of “Ave Maria” as a gift to his wife for their wedding.
His musical training started at age five, and recitals as a youth were in Philadelphia venues such as the Union League, the Academy of Music, the Hill School, Cabrini College, Curtis Institute and Drexel University.
He was first prize winner of the Drexel Keyboard Award, multiple winner in the Tri-County Concerts Association Competition, and finalist in the Philadelphia Orchestra Youth Competition and Pottstown Orchestra Youth Competition. As a child, Amalong also developed his love for chamber music, performing with a piano trio coached by Metta Watts and Orlando Cole at The New School of Music and Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
He attended the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music after winning a Van Cliburn Scholarship and studied with Frank Weinstock and later earned a master’s degree studying with the celebrated collaborative pianist Sandra Rivers. Other awards include first prize in the McElroy Competition and the Sarah B. Marvin Scholarship Award, and recently awards at the IBLA Grand Prize International Piano Competition in Sicily and a Fellowship to the Rome Festival in Rome, Italy.
He participated in masterclasses of Gary Graffman, Cecile Ousset, and Samuel Sanders and his chamber music coaches included Peter Oundjian and Yehuda Hanani.
Amalong has taught at Xavier University and is on the faculty at the College of Mount St. Joseph.
Amalong is preparing performances and recordings of his project Touch. The Toccata Project which presents piano toccatas composed after 1900. The recordings will include world premieres of relatively unknown toccatas by noted composers; the first in the series to be toccatas of American composers including Ned Rorem, George Antheil, Robert Muczynski, and Lee Hoiby. Volume I will be released on Albany Records inlate 2007.
Upcoming performances in include the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Cincinnati Symphony Chamber Players performing Schubert Trio in Eb and the Challenging Performances Series.
For more information on the concert, contact the School of Music at (270) 789-5237.
Campbellsville University, now celebrating her Centennial year, is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,310 students who represent 100 Kentucky counties, 32 states and 28 foreign nations. Listed in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” 14 consecutive years as one of the leading Southern master’s colleges and universities, Campbellsville University is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his eighth year as president.