Delaware County Symphony Features Guest Artist Carl Cranmer Performing Chopin Piano Concerto

The Delaware County Symphony will present the second symphonic concert of the 2015-2016 season under the baton of guest conductor Brian Cox on Sunday December 6, 2015 at 3:00 pm in the Meagher Theatre of the Thomas A. Bruder, Jr. Life Center at Neumann University.

Carl Cranmer, pianist, is the featured guest soloist who will perform the emotionally moving and technically challenging Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor by Frederick Chopin. Chopin uses this concerto to transport listeners into a world of soft, intimate music. The piano’s narrative drifts along at times on the edge of dreams and reality, flowing like free improvisation. Here is Chopin at one of his most ethereal moments.

Mr. Cranmer made his made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of nine. Since then, in addition to solo recitals in Europe, Asia, and North America, he has performed in concert with the Royal Philharmonic of England, the Gulbenkian Orquesta of Portugal, the Juilliard Orchestra and several other orchestras on the Eastern Seaboard. In addition to his study in conservatories of music in the United States, he also studied at the Sommerakademie at the Mozarteum, in Salzburg, Austria under full scholarship, where he was under the tutelage of distinguished teachers Karlheinz Kammerling, Jacob Lateiner, and Hans Graf.

In summer, 2007, Dr. Cranmer recorded a compact disc of the Concerto for Piano by the late West Chester composer Samuel Barber with the Russian Philharmonia, led by maestro Ovidiu Marinescu, conductor and violoncellist from West Chester University, which was recorded in Moscow, Russia.

Dr. Cranmer has considerable exposure in important national and international venues. He has performed in Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Weill Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York, in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in the Academy of Music and the Perelman Theater in the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. His performances have been televised in Madrid, Tokyo, Missouri and Philadelphia, and his performances have been aired on NPR, and radio stations in New York, Chicago, Montréal, Boston, and Atlanta. In addition to performances in Austria, France, England and Japan, he has had the opportunity to have two solo concert tours of Spain. In May 2002, he was invited to perform a solo recital sponsored by the American and Spanish Embassies in Panama City, Panama.

Dr. Cranmer also performs a wide variety of chamber music. He has performed in recital with German violinist and Naumburg Competition winner Axel Strauss in Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and Seattle. In 2004, their performance in Steinway Hall in New York City was broadcast by NHK on public television stations in Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Dr. Cranmer has also collaborated with a variety of other musicians, including the Grammy-winning Takács Quartet, baritone Randall Scarlata, tenor Robert White, and violinist Akiko Suwanai. He has performed in the summers at Tanglewood, Pianofest in the Hamptons, and the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival.

The concert will also include Ballet Suite by Rameau/Motti and Symphony in D Minor by Cesar Franck. All are invited to a free pre-concert presentation by Dr. Michael Kelly from 2-2:30 p.m. in the McNichol Room. Concert tickets are $18 or $15 for seniors/students. Neumann University students with ID are free and children under 12 (one child per paying adult) are free. There is ample free parking adjacent to the theatre and the center is handicapped accessible. For information call 610-879-7059 or visit www.dcsmusic.org

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