Steinway Artist Comes to Tarleton
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
STEPHENVILLE, Texas—Dr. Mark Puckett, Steinway Artist, renowned pianist and professor of piano and artist-in-residence at Hardin-Simmons University, performs a guest solo recital Monday, Jan. 23, at Tarleton State University.
The free recital takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center Theatre on the Stephenville campus.
Featured is a varied program of traditional, beloved works for piano, including Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata” by Ludwig van Beethoven, Polonaise – Fantaisie, Op. 61 by Frédéric Chopin, and the famous Mephisto Waltz by Franz Liszt.
Puckett has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Central America and Asia, working with conductors such as David Itkin, Shinik Hahm, Robert Cronquist, Guy Frazier Harrison and Ray Luke. He has performed on several occasions as guest soloist with the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra, and has won top prizes in international piano competitions, including the 1990 New Orleans International Piano Competition.
He has recorded a CD of Chopin’s Op. 10 Etudes, Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Liszt’s ‘La campanella’. Mark and his wife, Lauren, also a member of the piano faculty at Hardin-Simmons, have performed as the Puckett Piano Duo, two-piano and four-hand programs together for more than a decade. Their performances have taken them throughout the United States and, in conjunction with Chopin Tour 2005, they were invited to perform in Dresden, Germany.
The Pucketts performed and lectured together at the Texas Music Teachers Association State Convention in San Antonio and have recorded a CD of two-piano and four-hand repertoire by Dmitri Shostakovich, Darius Milhaud, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel and Witold Lutoslawski. In 2005, they were guest soloists with the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Frances Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, and in April 2010 they performed Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra.
Tarleton, a member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven educational experience marked by academic innovation and exemplary service, and dedicated to transforming students into tomorrow’s professional leaders. With campuses in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian and online, Tarleton engages with its communities to provide real-world learning experiences and to address societal needs while maintaining its core values of integrity, leadership, tradition, civility, excellence and service.
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Contact: Dr. Leslie Spotz
254-968-9241
spotz@tarleton.edu
