Pianist Toby Blumenthal to Launch Orchestra's Season Oct. 22

Pianist Toby Blumenthal will be featured as a Sterne Virtuoso Artist with the Skidmore Orchestra at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22, in Filene Recital Hall, playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 19 in F Major, K. 459.

The program, titled "Mozart's Birthday Bash," celebrates the composer's 250th birthday, and will also include the Overture to "Abduction from the Seraglio," K. 384; and "German Dances," K. 586. Admission is $5, or $2 for students and senior citizens.

Co-artistic director of the Luzerne Chamber Music Festival and director of piano studies at that festival's widely respected Luzerne Music Camp in Lake Luzerne, N.Y., Blumenthal has worked weekly with the students weekly at Skidmore.

"Guest artists usually have just one or maybe two rehearsals with the orchestra, but this is so much better for training the students," claims Anthony Holland, orchestra conductor. "We hear and feel what she's doing with her music, and what she wants. It's like having a performance every Tuesday, and it doesn't seem like work at all."

The pianist also brings another distinct advantage to her Sterne Residency with the orchestra: she has more than 25 years' experience working with and motivating music students, many of whom have gone on to achieve recognition themselves as professionals.

"I love playing with students, and I do it all the time," she comments, "but at our camp we have them captive all day, every day."

At Skidmore, Blumenthal also is coaching student chamber music ensembles, another role for which she has extensive talents.

Blumenthal is pianist with the Philadelphia Piano Quartet, which anchors Luzerne's Chamber Music Festival, and she often performs there with noted guest artists, including many musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra. She and her husband, cellist Bert Phillips, who is retired from the Philadelphia Orchestra, are also founders and co-artistic directors of Classic Chamber Concerts, an annual series in Naples, Fla., where they spend their winters. They will leave Luzerne the day after Blumenthal's performance at Skidmore to begin their 24-concert Florida series.

The enthusiastic pianist is responsible for the celebratory nature of the upcoming Skidmore program. "I told Tony (Holland), 'You should make it into a Mozart birthday bash, and make a happy thing out of it.' I want to make it fun, as Mozart's music should be, and I do have some surprises planned," Blumenthal says, adding that she hopes there will be "lots of kids" in attendance.

Blumenthal's music career extends beyond her well-established music camp and chamber music festivals. She has appeared as soloist with ensembles including the Chicago and Houston symphony orchestras. A native of Chicago, she is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Music, and earned a master's degree in performance from the University of Houston. She is a Steinway piano artist.

Blumenthal last performed Mozart's Concerto No. 19 two years ago, with the Southwest Florida Orchestra and Conductor Paul Nadler. "I love the way she plays Mozart," Holland notes, explaining that Blumenthal "has a special touch: clean and clear and light and quick," in which the listener has a sense of Mozart's sparkle and energy. "Her sense of musical phrasing has a subtlety: it's very natural," he added.

Although Blumenthal has never before performed with Holland conducting, she has performed some of his original compositions with the Philadelphia Piano Quartet, including nearly 20 performances of his "BRAHMS" Piano Quartet, in which he named each movement with a letter of the master composer's name. One of those performances was about five years ago at Skidmore. She also gave a trio performance at the College 25 years ago.

(Photo above: Skidmore Orchestra Conductor Anthony Holland and Toby Blumenthal, Sterne Virtuoso Artist.)