On Tuesday, January 31, the Asheville Symphony presents award-winning pianist Evren Ozel in recital with a program exploring polyphony, the musical concept of multiple independent melodic lines occurring simultaneously. The recital takes place at 7 p.m. at downtown Asheville’s Central United Methodist Church.
“While a group of musicians can present multiple voices and melodies at once with relative ease through their respective instruments, a pianist must skillfully accomplish the same effect with only their two hands,” says the Asheville Symphony’s executive director Daniel Crupi. “Ozel is an undisputed master of a wide range of polyphonic works.”
Evren Ozel. Photo by Geneva Lewis
The program includes Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Corelli; Chopin’s Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54; Bartok’s Out of Doors, Sz. 81; selections from Bach’s Das Woltemperierte Klavier, Book I; Ligeti’s Etudes, Book I: No. 2 “Cordes à vide;” and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111.
“Listeners are in for a real treat and should expect to hear a seemingly impossible degree of melodic material coming from a single instrument,” says Crupi.
Ozel has won numerous honors and awards including scholarships from the U.S Chopin Foundation and Young Arts Foundation, first prize at the 2016 Boston Symphony Concerto Competition, second prize at the 2016 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, and second prize, as well as Mozart and Chopin special prizes, at the 2018 Dublin International Piano Competition. He has performed with orchestras around the world including the Cleveland Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, RTE National Symphony and Boston Pops. Ozel is currently in the Master of Music program at New England Conservatory in Boston, where he has been studying with Wha Kyung Byun since 2014.
Tickets are general admission $45 for adults, and $15 for youth (under 25). They can be purchased online at AshevilleSymphony.org, by phone at 828.254.7046, or in person at the Asheville Symphony office at 27 College Place, Suite 100.
