Fryderyk Chopin Society of Connecticut | 2024

Internationally renowned pianists present the works of Fryderyk Chopin and other musical masters.

May 19: Jerome Lowenthal

Born in 1932, Jerome Lowenthal continues to fascinate audiences, who find in his playing a combination of youthful intensity and eloquence born of life-experience. He is a virtuoso of the fingers and emotions.

Mr. Lowenthal studied in his native Philadelphia with Olga Samaroff-Stokowski, in New York with William Kapell and Edward Steuermann, and in Paris with Alfred Cortot, meanwhile traveling annually to Los Angeles for coachings with Artur Rubinstein. After winning prizes in three international competitions (Bolzano, Darmstadt, and Brussels), he moved to Jerusalem where he played, taught, and lectured for three years.

Returning to America, he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic playing Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto in 1963. Since then, he has performed virtually everywhere, from the Aleutians to Zagreb. He has appeared as soloist with celebrated conductors including Barenboim, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Temirkanov, and Slatkin, and with such giants of the past as Bernstein, Ormandy, Monteux, and Stokowski. Mr. Lowenthal has played sonatas with Itzhak Perlman; piano duos with Ronit Amir (his late wife), Carmel Lowenthal (his daughter), and Ursula Oppens; and quintets with the Lark, Avalon, and Brentano Quartets. He recently recorded Two-Piano Music of Messiaen and Debussy with Oppens and the complete Annes Des Pelerinage of Liszt in a 3 CD set released in November 2010. Other recordings include concertos by Tchaikovsky and Liszt, solo works by Sinding and Bartók, and chamber music by Arensky and Taneyev.

Teaching is an important part of Mr. Lowenthal’s musical life, including over forty years at the Juilliard School and forty-two summers at the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Lowenthal has worked with an extraordinary number of gifted pianists, whom he encourages to understand the music they play in a wide aesthetic and cultural perspective, and to project it with the freedom which that perspective allows.

“Members Sit First” at select music events, including this one. Museum Members and Chopin Society Members will be seated first. Please line up in the LIC entrance and have your Membership card handy. Once Members are seated, the doors will open for the general public, and seating will be first come, first served. Seating capacity is limited to 120.

Concert attendees must register at the Front Desk upon arrival. Museum Members are free, and Museum guests are welcome with purchase of a Museum admission ticket.

All shows begin at 3 p.m.; doors to event space will open at 2:30 p.m.

Please note: Library Passes are not valid for programs, classes, or musical performances.