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P O W E L L, W y o. - Pianist Tim Schoessler and a program of romantic music highlight the Northwest Civic Orchestra's final concert of the season at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 28, in the Nelson Performing Arts Center Auditorium in Powell.
Conductor Jan Kliewer said Schoessler is sure to delight the audience with Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto, the first time the young pianist has performed the work with a full orchestra.
"Tim has hotter blood than I do," Kliewer said. "The brisker tempos are causing me and the orchestra to think about the music in different ways."
Schoessler is the NWC Music Department's pianist. He holds a bachelor's degree in keyboard performance from UW where he studied piano with Theresa Bogard and organ with Steven Hoffman. A winner and finalist in numerous piano competitions, he's currently completing his master's degree in keyboard performance.
The pre-intermission music features a march from "The Damnation of Faust," one of opera's most famous melodies, plus "Academic Festival Overture" in which Johannes Brahms reworked three melodies he initially wrote as a student.
"The only piece that's not solidly romantic," Kliewer said, "is Debussy's 'Petite Suite,' which falls under the impressionistic period. But some people consider the composer a genius of the romantic era."
The orchestra will continue its longstanding tradition of holding a reception after the concert for audience members and musicians to socialize and reflect on the evening.
General admission to the concert is $7; seniors pay $5. Admission is free to NWC students with ID, and children 12 and under accompanied by an adult.