West Virginia Symphony Orchestra on Campus Feb. 28

Under the direction of Grant Cooper, Artistic Director and Conductor, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra will perform at Fairmont State University on Thursday, Feb. 28.

Containing works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Anton Bruckner, the program will feature pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine. The program will include Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467” and Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 8 in C minor.”

Tickets are $30 for reserved seating, $20 for general admission, $10 for students and free for Fairmont State students. To order tickets, call (304) 367-4240. Parking for the event will be available on the top deck of the parking garage. FSU is committed to making performances and facilities accessible to all patrons. Large print programs and other accommodations are available.

Grant Cooper, Artistic Director and Conductor of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, officially began his duties as the ninth conductor in the WVSO’s history on July 1, 2001. From 1997-2007, Cooper served as Resident Conductor of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, where he gave almost 600 performances with that orchestra, appearing to critical acclaim on all the major series. Cooper is also Artistic Director of a summer festival, the Bach and Beyond Festival in Fredonia, N.Y. In the spring of 2012, Mr. Cooper was honored by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin as the recipient of a Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts.

The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra is West Virginia’s premier performing arts organization, presenting more than 50 concerts annually to audiences throughout the Mountain State. Programs include Symphonic, ZMM Pops and City National Bank Family Concert Series, performances by the Montclaire String Quartet, collaborations with the Charleston Ballet and other state arts organizations and a national award-winning education program. The Symphony’s home is the world-class Maier Foundation Performance Hall at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences in Charleston.

The Dallas Morning News said of Russian-American pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine: “[he] played Brahms’ ‘Op. 117 Intermezzi’ more beautifully, more movingly, than I’ve ever heard them. At once sad, tender and noble, this was playing of heart-stopping intimacy and elegance.” Moutouzkine has toured throughout Germany, France, Spain, Russia and Italy, and North and South America. In recent seasons, he has appeared as soloist with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Television Orchestra of Spain, Cleveland Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Valencia Philharmonic, the Gran Canaria and Tenerife symphonies in the Canary Islands, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Panama, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba, the Israel Philharmonic and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra of the Czech Republic. Moutouzkine is a winner of Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions.

Highlights of the upcoming season include Moutouzkine’s Philadelphia recital debut on Astral’s series, a debut with the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, where he performs Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 3,” a return to Symphony in C for Mozart’s “C Major Concerto, K. 467” and performances of “Between the Keys,” a program of the complete solo piano works of John Corigliano. Internationally, he tours Asia with recitals in Beijing Concert Hall, Japan’s Yokohama Recital Hall and throughout Taiwan. He also returns to the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia for a performance of Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 1.”

Recent highlights include debuts at the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic in Brahms’ “Piano Concerto No. 1” with the Berliner Symphoniker, a chamber music concert in Lincoln Center’s Kaplan Penthouse with the Jasper String Quartet, Scriabin’s Piano Concerto with the Stamford Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” with Symphony in C. In April 2011, Moutouzkine made his debut in Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, introducing his own solo piano transcription of Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” live, alongside specially commissioned animation titled “Who Stole The Mona Lisa?”

The winner of many renowned piano competition awards, Moutouzkine recently claimed top prizes at the Walter W. Naumburg, Cleveland, Montreal and Arthur Rubinstein international competitions, among others.

Moutouzkine holds a master’s degree and post-graduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky. He holds undergraduate degrees from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover and Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Music Academy. He is currently a teaching associate at the Manhattan School of Music. He is an Astral artist.

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West Virginia Symphony OrchestraGrant CooperSchool of Fine ArtsAlexandre MoutouzkineFriends of the Symphony