​Summer Music Series Comes to Pequot Library

From Pequot Library: Award-winning pianist Alex Beyer will perform a benefit concert on Pequot Library’s Steinway piano on Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. in the Auditorium as part of Pequot’s Summer Music Series. Beyer has received praise for his performances nationally and internationally. In 2016 he was the bronze medalist in the Queen Elisabeth Competition and was named one of five finalists of the American Pianists Association Awards. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and are available at pequotlibrary.org. All tickets are general admission, and the doors open 30 minutes before the performance begins. All proceeds from ticketed concerts support Pequot Library’s free music events.

In the last year, Beyer has been a guest soloist with the Brussels Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Royal Orchestra of Wallonia, the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra, and the Irish National Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Milwaukee, Charlotte, Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury, and Bridgeport symphony orchestras, among others.

Beyer received sixth Prize at the 2015 National Chopin Piano Competition. He received third prize, as well as the Beethoven and Irish National Symphony Orchestra special awards, at the 2015 Dublin International Piano Competition. Beyer was a 2012 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. He has studied with Yoshie Akimoto, Matti Raekallio, and Melvin Chen. He is currently studying with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun at the New England Conservatory, and he recently graduated from Harvard University with a degree in mathematics.

In the summer months he has attended the Killington Music Festival, the Vianden Music Festival in Luxembourg, the Saarburg Festival in Germany, and the Taos School of Music. In August 2015 he attended the International Holland Music Sessions; he returned to Holland in January 2017 as a part of the "New Masters on Tour" series.

Beyer has collaborated with conductors Stephane Denève, Marin Alsop, Paul Meyer, Federico Cortese, Alan Buribayev, Grzegorz Nowak, Constantine Kitsopoulos, Toshimasa Francis Wada, Carolyn Kuan, Leif Bjaland, and Gustav Meier, and he has regularly performed with Nicholas Kitchen and Yeesun Kim, founding members of the Borromeo String Quartet. He has recently performed in the Palais des Beaux Arts, Flagey Studio 4, the Irish National Concert Hall, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Paul Hall, Stamford Palace Theater, Weill Recital Hall, the New World Center and Woolsey Hall. As the winner of the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra concerto competition, Beyer made his Sanders Theater debut in 2015, and as a winner of the New England Conservatory Piano Honors Competition, he made his Jordan Hall debut in 2014.

Pequot Library’s last concert of its Summer Music Series will be a free folk concert with folk duo Hungrytown on Pequot’s Great Lawn, Tuesday, August 29 at 6:00 p.m.

Please visit www.pequotlibrary.org to learn more about this vibrant library, educational, arts and cultural institution. For information: (203) 259-0346 ext. 115. Follow Pequot Library on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Pequot Library Brings Culture to Life!

Photo courtesy of Pequot Library