Robert Thies (Photo – Courtesy of author)
SOUTH PASADENA – ColoradoBoulevard.net:
The South Pasadena Public Library is a beautiful yet simple Carnegie building, donated by the industrialist to the small town a hundred years ago. But on Restoration Concert Sundays, one could be forgiven for mistaking its Community Room for an older, more courtly setting.
By News Desk
The Restoration Committee of the South Pasadena Friends of the Library announced that the next Restoration Concert will feature world-renowned concert pianist Robert Thies on Sunday, May 8, 2022 at 4:00 pm.
Co-chairs Janet Ervin and Laurie Astle seem to have a small army of volunteers who make the magic happen, and South Pasadena is privileged to enjoy the likes of pianist Robert Thies and the New Hollywood String Quartet (who will be performing on May22). Thies long ago moved onto larger international venues but still returns to honor the early start people here gave him.
- Sunday, May 8, 2022 at 4:00 pm*
Robert Thies will be playing a program of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Danae Vlasse, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Gershwin. Tickets at the door are $20. The concert is being held at the Library Community Room (1115 El Centro St.) in South Pasadena. Mask wearing is optional but strongly recommended.
Robert Thies (Photo – Courtesy of author)
Robert Thies
A pianist of majestic interpretations of pieces large and small, Robert Thies (pronounced “Theece”) is an artist renowned for his consummate musicianship and poetic temperament. He first captured worldwide attention in 1995 when he won the Gold Medal at the Second International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. With this victory, Thies became the only American pianist to win first prize in a Russian piano competition since Van Cliburn’s famed triumph in Moscow in 1958.
In Los Angeles, Thies has worked with film composers James Newton Howard, the late James Horner, Danny Elfman, Mychael Danna, John Williams, and Lalo Schifrin, among others. His playing can be heard prominently in the 2015 film, Concussion, as well as in Mychael Danna’s Oscar winning score to The Life of Pi. In 2017 he was a featured soloist in Philip Glass’s score to Jane, a documentary about Jane Goodall, which was played live to picture at the Hollywood Bowl. He was a featured pianist on Danny Elfman’s concert piece: Serenada Schizophrana, and in 2015 and 2016, he was a featured musician in live performances of Elfman’s A Nightmare Before Christmas at the Hollywood Bowl. In 2010 the Grammy winning conductor, Lucas Richman, invited him to join a full symphony orchestra on a North American tour of John Williams’ Star Wars in Concert.
Additional concerts
- Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 4:00 pm.
On Sunday, May 22, Restoration Concerts will feature the New Hollywood String Quartet performing along with pianist Bernadene Blaha. The NHSQ consists of violinists Tereza Stanislav and Rafael Rishik, cellist Andrew Shulman and violist Robert Brophy. The foursome is the Restoration Concerts Series’ Quartet in Residence.
- Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 4:00 pm*
One more concert will complete the 2021-22 season. Violinist Cindy Wu and pianist Ines Irawati will perform at 4 p.m. Jan. 29, 2023.
*Additional concerts were added to the schedule to make up for canceled performances due to COVID-19 cases. Tickets from those cancelled January and February concerts can be used for the May 8 and Jan. 29 performances.
Restoration Concerts Sunday, May 8, 2022 4:00 pm Location S. Pas. Library Community Room 1115 El Centro St.
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