Thursday, Oct. 08, 2009

Piano prodigy back home to play with symphony

Herald staff

Pianist Alexander Bernstein will be the featured guest at the Walla Walla Symphony's opening concert Oct. 13 in Cordiner Hall at Whitman College.

The concert highlights Chopin's piano concerto No. 2 in F minor, Schumann's Symphony No. 3 and Rossini's William Tell Overture.

Bernstein, a senior at Harvard University, is studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. The 20-year-old piano prodigy has been playing piano since age 7 while growing up in San Francisco. His family later moved to Walla Walla where he began a nine-year study with piano professor Debra Richter from Walla Walla College.

Bernstein made his symphony debut at age 10 with the Oregon East Symphony and continued guest performances with other symphonies before he was out of his teens.

Bernstein's style also seems to attract younger people to classical music because he is drawn to the newer music of such contemporary composers as Berio, Ligeti and Cage, said Michael Wenberg, CEO of the Walla Walla Symphony.

Bernstein has won numerous awards during the last decade.