Lebanon Valley College Hosts Pianist Ivo Kaltchev March 15

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Ivo Kaltchev will perform a recital Sunday, March 15, at 3 p.m. in Lutz Hall of Blair Music Center.

ANNVILLE, PA (02/23/2015)(readMedia)-- Renowned pianist Ivo Kaltchev will perform a recital Sunday, March 15, at 3 p.m. at Lebanon Valley College in Lutz Hall of Blair Music Center. The program features Antonio Soler's Three Sonatas, Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata Op. 110, Pancho Vladigerov's Improvisation and Perpetuum Mobile, Claude Debussy's Four Preludes, and Alexander Scriabin's Sonata #5. Kaltchev's performance is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a master class for LVC music students at 5 p.m.

Prizewinner of international piano competitions and a Bösendorfer Concert Artist, Kaltchev has enjoyed a successful performing career as recitalist, orchestra soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist. His artistry has been acclaimed by music critics worldwide, offering such praise as "Formidable technique" (Piano Journal, England), "possesses the genius of rubato" (Diapason, France), "distinctive and original" (Soviet Culture, Russia), "impressive" (Frankfurter Neue Presse, Germany) "most beautifully and idiomatically played" (International Record Review, England), "glittering," " big technique" (The Washington Post, USA), and "a master of the whole range of pianistic attacks and coloristic effects" (The Star Ledger, USA).

Kaltchev has performed in musical centers throughout the world, including Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory Malii and Rachmaninov Halls, St. Petersburg State Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, Salle Moliere (Lyon, France), Tel Aviv Museum Recanati Auditorium, Mendelssohn Hochschule für Musik Hall (Leipzig, Germany), Princeton University's Richardson Auditorium, and the Bulgaria Great Hall.

He has been a guest artist at music festivals in Austria, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Ukraine, Korea, China, Singapore, Thailand, and the U.S. Some of the highlights of recent seasons include a solo recital and a concerto performance with the EOS Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall, a concert tour in Asia as well as performances of the complete solo piano works of Claude Debussy. A respected chamber musician, Kaltchev has collaborated with members of the New York Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as the Essex Quartet, pianists Ilana Vered and Milena Mollova, and French actress Marie Christine Barrault.

Kaltchev's critically acclaimed commercial recordings for the Bulgarian "Gega New" label include an all-Charles Griffes CD (hailed by the French magazine Diapason as "the most accomplished interpretation known until now"), a CD with the world premieres of solo piano works by the French composer Florent Schmitt, as well as a recently released CD with works of Debussy.

Kaltchev holds degrees and diplomas from Yale and Rutgers universities, the Sofia Academy of Music, and the Liszt Hochschule für Musik (Weimar). He is the recipient of piano pedagogy awards for teaching excellence and has presented lectures, workshops, and master classes in Europe, China, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, the Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Kaltchev's students are prizewinners of more than 20 piano competitions and have performed with numerous orchestras including I Solisti di Perugia (Italy). Kaltchev is an active adjudicator and has judged international piano competitions in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the U.S.

Currently, Kaltchev is associate professor of piano and head of the Piano Division at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is co-director and co-founder of the Washington International Piano Festival, as well as artistic director of the Bulgarian Music Society Concert Series at the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, D.C. He has taught as a visiting piano professor at the Beijing China Conservatory of Music and the Yale University School of Music.

Lebanon Valley College offers numerous public performances by students, faculty, and guests of the College throughout the semester, many of them free and open to the public. For the list of recitals this spring, visit www.lvc.edu/music/events.aspx.