The UTC Music Dept. is proud to present the piano students of Dr. Sin-Hsing Tsai in a piano studio recital. The performance will be on Saturday, October 30, at 7:30 PM in the UTC Fine Arts Center Roland Hayes Hall, 725 Vine St., Chattanooga. The concert is presented free of charge and is open to the general public.

Program highlights are the Military March by Franz Schubert,Eight Memoires in Watercolor by Tan Dun, Islamey by Mily Balakirev, and Scherzo in B-flat Minor by Frédéric Chopin, to be played by Stephanie Roberts, Liliya Garasimchuk, Sarah Trotter, Johan Sentana, and Priska Santana.

The program will open with the crowd pleasing Military March. Most often heard as a brilliant encore of solo piano recitals, this piece will be presented in its original version of piano duet by Stephanie Roberts and Liliya Garasimchuk.

Sarah Trotter will perform “Staccato Beans” and “Floating Clouds” from Eight Memories in Watercolor. Chinese composer Tan was the winner of the 2000 Academy Award for his original music score of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Memories... were from his student years and never intended to be published. The concert pianist Lang Lang rediscovered these miniatures, encouraged the composer to revise and publish them, and gave the official world premiere in 2001. Chattanooga will have the opportunity to hear these musical gems written in Western style, with a melancholic hint of the composer’s homeland.

The monumental Islamey will be performed by graduate student Johan Sentana. It is one of the most celebrated pieces from the virtuosic literature. Based on a Caucasian dance tune and an Armenian love song, this piece became part of the acrobatic pianist Franz Liszt’s concert repertoire. Unfairly labeled as a mere showpiece, Islamey features some of Liszt’s deepest, most beautiful and romantic passages.

2010 is a celebration year for pianists across the continents. Both Chopin and Robert Schumann were born 200 years ago, in 1810, and Priska Sentana will join the rest of the world in celebrating Chopin’s bicentennial by performing hisScherzo in B-flat Minor. Chopin wrote four Scherzi and they are some of the most difficult pieces of the piano repertoire. Even though he did not set out to defy the laws of the physics, his Scherzi certainly require the pianist to have excellent dexterity and superb sense of lyricism.

The recital will conclude with the brilliant Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion by Béla Bartók. Written for two pianists and two percussionists, this piece became the source of inspiration for many compositions for the same ensemble. The third movement highlights the brilliance and virtuosity of the xylophone and timpani in astonishing ways, and the piano parts call for musicians of great versatility and alertness. The pianists are Priska Sentana and Eshtan Anderson, and features guest percussionists Matt Broom and Mike White.

For more information regarding UTC music dept. events, please visit our website at http://utc.edu/music or phone the music office at 423-425-4601.