Peter Takács to Perform GRAND FINALE of Two-Year, Eight-Recital Beethoven Cycle, Thursday, April 27, 8 P.M. in Finney Chapel Takács To be Featured on WCPN's "Around Noon" (FM 90.3) with host Dee Perry on Monday, April 24
	back to the main story RELATED Takács' The Mind of Beethoven with audio clips		About Peter Takács Takács was born in 1946 in Bucharest, Romania, and began his musical studies at the age of four. From the age of seven, he appeared in numerous recitals in his native country until his performances were banned due to his family's request for emigration. Upon arriving in France in 1961, he was accepted to the Conservatoire National de Paris, one of the three places available for foreign students. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1962, his remarkable talents continued to be recognized with full scholarships to Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, and a three-year doctoral grant to the Peabody Conservatory where he completed his artistic training with the great pianist Leon Fleisher. Takács has received many prizes and awards, including First Prize in the William Kapell International Piano Competition, the C.D. Jackson Award at the Tanglewood Festival, and a Special Award in the American Music - Rockefeller Foundation International Competition. As a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist grant, he recorded a number of Mozart Piano Concertos, acting as both soloist and conductor. Takács has appeared as a recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral soloist throughout North America and abroad, in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the 92nd St "Y", Kennedy Center, the Philips Collection, the National Gallery of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. He has participated in summer festivals such as Chautauqua, Tanglewood, Skaneateles, Brandeis, and Music Mountain. Nationally known as a piano pedagogue, Takács has been a member of the jury for several international competitions. His performances of Gershwin song arrangements have been featured on NPR's "Performance Today." Inspiration for the Cycle: When asked why he initiated this ambitious project, Takács replied: "I have lived with these magnificent works, as performer and teacher, for many years. I find in them a record of a great composer's development from his youth as a brilliant virtuoso to the peaks of musical maturity. One recurrent aspect of these sonatas is their strikingly modern relevance as universal statements about the human condition--about struggle and suffering, healing and transcendence. In them one gleans a mind intent on surprising and delighting the listener, pushing the envelope of accepted rules, and being inspired by nature both in its pastoral serenity and its turbulence (reflecting his inner turmoil as well). "There is great pleasure in tackling the physical aspects of this music. The sheer instrumental demands are challenging, but never as displays of virtuosity. There is also pleasure in a kind of lateral thinking, in examining other works--especially the symphonies, string quartets, and the opera 'Fidelio'--for hints of deeper meanings in these piano works, in terms of instrumental coloring and emotional content."
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