MONROE — By arrangement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, Monroe Arts Center presents two musical forces together on stage for one concert. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2 world-renowned pianist Christopher Taylor, and members of Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet, will perform an extended-length afternoon concert by composers Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms.
This is the fourth of eight Sunday performances to be presented as part of MAC’s Sunday Concert Series. All Sunday concerts are held in MAC’s Gunderson Stiles Concert Hall, 1315 11th Street, Monroe.
Hailed by critics as “a great pianist” (The Los Angeles Times), Christopher Taylor has distinguished himself throughout his career as an innovative musician with a diverse array of talents and interests. His repertoire spans four centuries and includes the complete Beethoven sonatas, the Liszt Transcendental Etudes, Bach’s Goldberg Variations and a multitude of other familiar masterworks.
Taylor has concertized around the globe, with the most recent international tours taking him to Korea, China, Singapore, Italy and Venezuela. In the U.S. he has appeared with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony.
Apart from concertizing and recording, Taylor has undertaken various unusual projects which include a series of performances of the Goldberg Variations on the unique double-manual Steinway piano in the collection of the University of Wisconsin. He has actively promoted the rediscovery and refurbishment of the latter instrument; over the past five years he has also been building a reinvented and modernized version of it, a project that relies on his computer and engineering skills and is now nearing completion.
In addition to his concert schedule, Taylor currently serves as Paul Collins Associate Professor of piano performance at UW-Madison.
The Pro Arte Quartet is one of the world’s most distinguished string quartets. Three members of the quartet, David Perry (violin), Sally Chisholm (viola), and Parry Karp (cello), will be part of the Dec. 2 concert.
As a quartet, they have performed together as an ensemble since 1995 and have toured throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. The quartet has performed at the White House and, during the multi-year centennial anniversary, played for the King’s Counselor in Belgium.
PAQ has recorded extensively, beginning in the 1930s and continuing to the present day. They are an ensemble in residence at the UW School of Music and are the resident quartet of the Chazen Museum of Art.
Monroe Arts Center members may attend this concert for free. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Monroe Arts Center at 608-325-5700, or in person at the box office located at 1315 11th Street, or online at www.monroeartscenter.
