Linfield College’s Keyboard Kapers, a celebration of all things piano, will highlight renowned visiting pianist Jeffrey LaDeur.
Keyboard Kapers encompasses three events from Feb. 28-March 3, including a guest lecture, a concert and a master class. LaDeur will present “Musicien Français,” a discussion of French music from 1700-1918, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 1:30 p.m. “Piano Potpourri,” a concert featuring LaDeur, Linfield piano professor Johnandrew Slominski and Linfield students will be held on Friday, March 2, at 7 p.m. A master class featuring young artists will be held on Saturday, March 3, at 10:30 a.m. All events will be held in the Vivian A. Bull Music Center at Linfield College.
LaDeur received his undergraduate degree at the Eastman School of Music and his master’s degree in chamber music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He also studied with Robert McDonald through the Taos School of Music and received his formative musical training from Mark Edwards and Annie Sherter, a student of Vlado Perlemuter and Alfred Cortot. He has held concerts around the United States and the world, has been broadcasted on numerous radio stations and was featured in the 2016 award-winning documentary “California Typewriter.” LaDeur is also the founder and artistic director of the San Francisco International Piano Festival and New Piano Collective, as well as a founding member of the acclaimed Delphi Trio, prize winners of the 2015 Orlando Competition in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Education through music is central to LaDeur’s mission as a performer. He is a faculty member of the Crowden School’s summer chamber music workshop and the piano faculty of the Young Chamber Musicians. He also helped develop a program for emerging musicians to guide them through their first professional concert experience.
Slominski received a bachelor’s degree of music in performance, master’s degree of music in performance and literature, and a master’s degree of arts in pedagogy of music theory from the Eastman School of Music by the age of 21, after entering college at 15. From 2012-2017 Slominski was the assistant professor of music theory at Eastman School of Music and is a founding faculty member of the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa, Florida, where he teaches in the summer months. He joined the Linfield faculty in 2017. While teaching at Eastman, he received the Performer’s Certificate in recognition of outstanding concert artistry – the youngest individual to have received this honor. He was also awarded the Prize for Excellence in Teaching in recognition for his musicological research, as well as other prizes for his performances since then. Slominski is the founder and director of “Classical Music on the Spot,” an institute dedicated to the research, teaching and performance of 18th century style improvisation at the keyboards.
All of the events are free and open to the public and sponsored by the Linfield Department of Music. For more information, call 503-883-2275 or visit linfield.edu/arts.
