Raymond Erickson to Give Piano Recital at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Raymond Erickson, professor of music at Queens College and at the Graduate Center, the City University of New York, will perform a piano recital on Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall at the College of the Holy Cross. The recital is free and open to the public.

A widely-published scholar and well-traveled musician, Erickson made his orchestral debut as pianist with the Schumann Piano Concerto as a teenager, although for most of the last 30 years he has been better known as a harpsichordist, having been very closely associated with Aston Magna since its beginning, both as harpsichordist and as director of the noted Aston Magna Academies.

Erickson is editor of Schubert’s Vienna (Yale University Press, 1997), a multi-disciplinary treatment by lecturers at the 1993 Aston Magna Academy. He has done important work in medieval music theory and historical performance practice and is heard on several recordings, including the first American period-instrument recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and a CD devoted to songs and instrumental music of Henry Purcell.

Erickson has been honored with honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the Endowed Chair in Music at the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), listing in Who’s Who Among American Teachers, the William H. Scheide Research Award of the American Bach Society, and the Officers Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was the founding director of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College (1981) and served as dean of arts and humanities at the College. He is a frequent pre-concert lecturer for Lincoln Center and the New York Collegium. He graduated with high honors from Whittier College in California and holds a Ph.D. in history of music from Yale.

Erickson will be performing recitals on the East Coast, Germany, and Austria during the fall before settling in Leipzig to research J.S. Bach, sponsored by Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. It will be his second piano recital tour in three years.

On Sept. 16 at 2 p.m., Erickson will offer a workshop titled "Performing Bach on Modern Instruments and Vocal Technique" with Holy Cross students. The events are sponsored by the music department.

RECITAL PROGRAM

Fantasie in F minor, Op. 49                                          Frédéric Chopin Excursions                                                                       Samuel  Barber Sonata in E major, Op. 109                                           Ludwig van Beethoven Intermission Three preludes                                                                Sergei Rachmaninoff Nocturne (for the left hand alone), Op. 9, No. 2         Alexander Scriabin Sonate No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83                            Sergei Prokofiev