Pianist Performance to Feature Works By Schubert, Brahms and Chopin
Pianist Donald R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D., will play a number of the most romantic Viennese works ever composed at a performance on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in The University of Scranton’s Houlihan-McLean Center. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.
Performance Music at The University of Scranton will present “IN RECITAL: An Evening in Vienna” with pianist Donald R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D. Nearly every work in the program was either composed in Vienna or has a specific relationship to Vienna. The performance will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the University’s Houlihan-McLean Center. Admission to the concert is free and the event is open to the public.
Dr. Boomgaarden serves as the University’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. A noted historian of opera, music aesthetics and harmonic theory, his writings include a book on the philosophy and aesthetics of music, entitled “Musical Thought in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Germany,” as well as articles and reviews in “The New Grove Dictionary,” “The New Grove Dictionary of Opera” and the “British Dictionary of National Biography.” In addition, he has published articles and reviews in many scholarly journals including the Journal of Musicological Research, Journal of Music Theory, Ad Parnassum and the Journal of Education and Learning. He has also published in popular journals and magazines, such as Opera Today.
Dr. Boomgaarden attended the Eastman School of Music and the University of Vienna, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is also a graduate of Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. His teaching career has included positions at Ithaca College, St. Mary’s College in Maryland, the Institut für Musikwissenschaft at the University of Salzburg and Loyola University Maryland. He served as chair of the music department at St. Mary’s College in Maryland, and later as assistant to the provost. At Loyola University Maryland he was assistant vice president for academic affairs. Until his appointment as provost at The University of Scranton, he was dean of the College of Music and Fine Arts and David P. Swanzy Distinguished Professor of Music at Loyola University New Orleans.
Along with his interests in academic administration and musicology, Dr. Boomgaarden has enjoyed an active career as a concert pianist. He began his studies at the age of four. While still a high school student, he became a pupil of Blaise Montandon at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. At Texas State University he studied piano and composition with Russell Riepe, and later at the Eastman School of Music with Ellen Martin and Thomas Donohue. He has performed at master classes with Gustav Leonhardt and Paul Badura-Skoda, and continues to concertize frequently.
For additional information about the performance, visit scranton.edu/music or contact Performance Music at 570-941-7624 or at music@scranton.edu.
