The final Sunday Concert for 2016 featuring two very talented pianists will take place at 2 pm on Sunday, November 6 at St. John the Divine Church, 579 – 5th Street, Courtenay. Admission by donation.
Allen Reiser hails from Calgary, and met Peter Walker during piano lessons from the same teacher. Since then they have been musical colleagues. Allen made his London (GB) debut in 1978 to great critical acclaim, especially after winning the Croyden Symphony Orchestra’s Soloist Award. He has performed often all across Canada and the U.S., including Salt Lake City (Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival). Allen’s recitals are a wide ranging mix of standard works for the keyboard plus a less frequent repertoire, with additional Canadian musical content.
He has two CD’ in circulation featuring sonatas and sonatinas. He is a former student of Peter Katin (GB), Dr. Robin Wood (Victoria) and Mary Hughes Fenwich (Calgary), has taught at various summer schools in Alberta and B.C., and is active throughout Western Canada as a performer, adjudicator and master class clinician. We welcome him wholeheartedly to the Comox Valley.
Peter Walker also hails from Calgary (2010) and has been doing serious piano performances most of his life. He describes himself as an amateur who strives to perform at the professional level. Peter holds two associate diplomas in Piano, as well as a BA degree from UBC and an M.Ed. degree from the University of Calgary, with specialization in music education. While in Alberta he was awarded several silver medals from the Toronto Conservatory of Music. Peter has been a regular CBC performer and was the winner in 1970 of the CBC talent Festival and subsequently performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He enjoys playing a variety of composers and aims to bring a sense of joy and wonder to the pieces he will play.
A sample of the piano compositions to be played include Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Chopin.