There will be two international stars on stage at Norfolk's Chrysler Hall on February 13, 2014 for Virginia Arts Festival's preview concert for its upcoming spring season.
One of them is Lang
Lang, the 31-year-old energetic piano virtuoso from China, who has
ignited the music world since he was discovered as a teenager.
The other star is a new Steinway D grand piano made in Hamburg, Germany. The arts festival bought the instrument in January with help from a major grant from the E.K. Sloane Fund of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.
"It's the cream of the crop," Robert W. Cross, executive director of the festival, says of the new piano. It previously graced Carnegie hall's stage and has been declared by renowned concert pianist Andre-Michel Schub to be "the best piano I have ever played." Schub directs the festival's annual chamber music series.
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| Lang Lang doing what he loves |
The other star is a new Steinway D grand piano made in Hamburg, Germany. The arts festival bought the instrument in January with help from a major grant from the E.K. Sloane Fund of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.
"It's the cream of the crop," Robert W. Cross, executive director of the festival, says of the new piano. It previously graced Carnegie hall's stage and has been declared by renowned concert pianist Andre-Michel Schub to be "the best piano I have ever played." Schub directs the festival's annual chamber music series.
E.K.
Sloane, a Norfolk engineer who died in 1997 at age 90, loved piano music even
though he didn't play the
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E.K. Sloane
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instrument. Because he thought to put a bequest in his
will for a field-of-interest fund at his community foundation for pianos, our
region has more than 110 amazing Sloane pianos. They are valued at more than $3
million and belong to more than 60 different nonprofit organizations.
There were flames on stage at the Grammy Awards last
month in Los Angeles when Lang Lang stole the show by performing with
Metallica. Click here for a video.
We
expect Lang Lang and the new Hamburg Steinway to generate all the heat on
Thursday at the 7:30 p.m. Norfolk show. And, we think E.K. would be thrilled
with the spectacle. His pianos anchor many stages throughout our region will be
featured venues during the festival, which will run from April 2 through May 25.
For
information on Lang Lang and how to get tickets click here. Tickets range in price from $20 to $75.
A dollar from each ticket will be donated to the
Virginia Arts Festival Endowment at the Hampton Roads Community
Foundation. The endowment helps the festival bring special concerts to
Hampton Roads audiences. The festival's endowment was established in 1997 -- the
same year E.K. Sloane's bequest created his permanent fund for
pianos.
(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org.)
