Music on Park Avenue: Evenings with Pianist Per Tengstrand
Thursday, March 19, 8 pm
Thursday, April 23, 8 pm
Thursday, May 14, 7 pm
$25/general, $20/ASF members
Swedish pianist and artistic director Per Tengstrand – now in his fifth season of musical programming at Scandinavia House – performs a series of concerts with a focus on a chamber music repertoire, highlighting distinguished composers and musicians.
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March 19 | Pre-concert talk @ 7:15 pm
The Swedish Violin
Internationally-acclaimed Swedish violin virtuoso Christian Svarfvar joins Music on Park Avenue artistic director Per Tengstrand for an evening of explosive and exciting chamber music, including Maurice Ravel’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major (1923-27).
April 23 | Pre-concert talk @ 7:15 pm
An Evening of Chamber Music with Young Musicians
Hear the musical stars of tomorrow! In an evening filled with classical masterpieces, young, up-and-coming instrumentalists perform alongside Per Tengstrand on the piano.
May 14 | concert @ 7 pm
Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph
Award-winning author and composer Jan Swafford visits the Music on Park Avenue series to mark the occasion of his newest book Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) and discuss Ludwig van Beethoven’s music and life with Per Tengstrand. The evening includes music by Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, and W.A. Mozart, with Tengstrand at the piano.
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About Per Tengstrand
Per Tengstrand (b. 1968, Växjö) is a Swedish pianist and artistic director of Music on Park Avenue: Evenings with Pianist Per Tengstrand at Scandinavia House. He began playing the piano at six years old and entered the Malmö Academy of Music at age 16, studying under Hans Pålsson. In 1985 Tengstrand was accepted at the Conservatoire de Paris in the class of Dominique Merlet. He continued private studies with Dominique Weber and Romuald Sztern to prepare for international piano competitions.
Tengstrand has received numerous honors and awards, including First Prize at the 1997 Cleveland International Piano Competition. He was named a laureate of the Geneva Competition (1996) and a laureate of the Paris International Long-Thibaud Competition (1996). Tengstrand was the recipient of the 1997 Anders Wall Foundation Scholarship and was awarded the 1999 Musician Award by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. While at the Conservatoire de Paris, Tengstrand received the Premier Prix, Premier Nommé, and the Prix Spécial du Jury and was awarded the Prix de Virtuosité at the Geneva Conservatory. In 2005 he was decorated with the “Litteris et Artibus” Medal by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden for outstanding service to the arts. He is also the recipient of the 2014 Lunds Studentsångförenings Solistpris (LSS) Award, one of Sweden’s biggest musical awards.
Recent career highlights include performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major during Neeme Järvi’s final subscription concerts with the New Jersey Philharmonic; performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap; the Residentie der Leonard Slatkin; and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, under Edo de Waart. Tengstrand has recorded the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas for his Mindfeel label.
His 2014-15 concert season includes engagements with Norddeutsche Radio Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig; the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland; and the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Tengstrand makes his home in Princeton, New Jersey with his wife and collaborator, pianist Shan-shan Sun. They comprise the Tengstrand-Sun Piano Duo, which has enjoyed great success following their first prize at the 2003 Murray Dranoff International Two-Piano Competition. The duo has released three CDs on the Mindfeel label, and he has recorded a solo CD for ProPiano of Alexander Glazunov’s The Seasons (1900) and his Konzertwalzer (a world premiere).
The 2015 Music on Park Avenue concert series is supported in part by a generous grant from The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and a grant from Christina Lang Assael and The Assael Foundation.
