Happy Birthday Brahms!

913 57th Street,Kenosha WI 53140

07 May, 2022

Description

The Kenosha Symphony Orchestra presents works by Tchaikovsky and Brahms. Pianist Wael Farouk is featured. Program Includes Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op.23 by Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky. Wael Farouk, piano Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op.73 by Johannes Brahms Covid-19 Protocol Masks are highly recommended. Dr. Wael Farouk has performed on five continents in such venues as the White Hall in St. Petersburg, Schumann’s house in Leipzig, and Carnegie Hall in New York, where his solo debut performance in 2013 was described as “absolutely masterful.” Between 2014 and 2018, Dr. Farouk performed 30 different recital programs featuring the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff and Brahms, as well as the complete piano chamber music of Brahms. Other programs included works by Chopin, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Bolcom, Busoni, Godowsky, the complete Transcendental Etudes by Liszt, Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, and Bach’s Art of the Fugue. Dr. Farouk also performed during these four years the complete piano concertos of Rachmaninoff, Brahms, and Beethoven (including all five of Beethoven’s concertos in a single concert, which he did three days in a row). In 2017 he gave the African premiere of the monumental 75-minute Busoni piano concerto with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and performed concertos by Liszt, Prokofiev, and Chopin with orchestras in the United States. The five-recital series featuring the complete solo works of Rachmaninoff was a feat the Chicago Tribune hailed as “historical” in a front-page feature. The series made additional headlines on the front pages of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, and the Clavier Companion. Praised as a “formidable and magnificent pianist” by the New York Concert Review, Dr. Farouk has had an extensive performing career. He commands a vast repertoire of more than 70 concertos and 60 solo programs, spanning from Scarlatti to Bolcom and including the complete piano works of J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff. Dr. Farouk has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saint-Etienne National Orchestra, the Academy of the Arts Orchestra, the Manhattan Symphony, and the Cairo Symphony Orchestra for more than 20 concertos, including the Egyptian premieres of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3; Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2; Prokofiev Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2, and 3; and the rarely heard monumental 75-minute-long Busoni Piano Concerto, which was also an African premiere. Dr. Farouk has performed with numerous conductors, including Christoph Mueller, Steven Lloyd, Patrick Fournilier, and Philippe Entremont. He has toured England, Russia, Italy, France, Spain, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, Colombia, and Japan. In 2004, Dr. Farouk was given the honor of playing on Tchaikowsky’s piano—the first pianist to do so since Vladimir Horowitz. Russian Portraits, his debut solo album, was released on the Carlock Records label in 2013. The all-Russian album has drawn praise for its musical beauty and virtuosity. David Dubal has described the album as one that “gives us familiar repertoire played with a new light and freshness. Here is piano playing that brings chills to the flesh, performed with a rare virtuoso technique.” The Manhattan School of Music has honored Dr. Farouk by featuring his portrait on its wall of distinguished graduates. He is featured alongside Kirill Gerstein, a recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Award and the Avery Fisher Award, and Simone Dinnerstein. Teaching: Dr. Farouk directs the keyboard studies program at Carthage College and oversees the Carthage Arts Academy in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He frequently judges competitions and delivers masterclasses. As a teacher, Dr. Farouk believes in cultivating each student’s own artistic voice while empowering them with a solid technical foundation. Within a short time, his students routinely demonstrate tremendous artistic and technical growth. Students work with Dr. Farouk on learning a large repertoire, from early Baroque to Contemporary composers. His students have won local, national, and international competitions and prizes and have performed live on public radio. Dr. Farouk is on the artist faculty roster at the prestigious Puigcerdà Music Festival, which includes such artists as pianist Oxana Yablonskaya and cellist-conductor Dmitry Yablonsky, and the InterHarmony International Music Festival.