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Ticket Price$15-70Students Half Price
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Duration2hrs 10minOne intermission
- Saturday, October 22, 2022 7:30PM — Des Moines Civic Center
- Sunday, October 23, 2022 2:30PM — Des Moines Civic Center
The Firebird
Award-winning pianist Charlie Albright returns in a program featuring Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody and Stravinsky’s dazzling, colorful Firebird.
Award-winning pianist Charlie Albright returns to Des Moines in a brilliant showcase of stunning moments and orchestral thrills. The concert begins with William Bolcom’s raucous Ragomania, then Mr. Albright performs Rachmaninoff’s ravishing, virtuosic Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The program continues with the elegant Symphony No. 2, written in 1775 by the first known classical composer of African ancestry, Saint-Georges. Finally – the colorful, evocative tale of the Firebird will raise the rafters of the Civic Center, bringing the concert to a dazzling finish.
Watch VideoTickets
Single tickets are $20-$80 and are available through Des Moines Performing Arts. Ticket prices are subject to a $5 increase on the day of the concert, excluding student rush tickets.
Student tickets are $7.50-$35 and are available through the Civic Center Ticket Office. Student rush tickets, subject to availability, are $5 for junior high and high school students and $10 for all other students the day of the concert through the Civic Center Ticket Office. One ticket sold per valid Student ID.
Learn More
Join us 45 minutes before the concert in the Prairie Meadows (East) Lobby for a free Concert Prelude Talk. Led by Dr. Eric McIntyre of Grinnell College, these discussions are complimentary to ticket holders and offer engaging and topical commentary on the featured program.
Digital Program Books
In an effort to reduce our environmental impact and preserve natural resources, we now offer a Digital Program Book. Click here to read about the program, guests artists and composers featured this weekend.
Joseph Giunta Conductor
One of America’s most distinguished, versatile and dynamic conductors, Joseph Giunta is a musician of international acclaim. He is recognized as an important American conductor for his innovative programming and for his compelling interpretations of traditional and new music. His musical depth combined with his boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm makes him one of the most respected and successful orchestra leaders in the United States.
Charlie Albright Piano
Hailed as “among the most gifted musicians of his generation” with a “dazzling natural keyboard affinity” who “made quite an impression” by the Washington Post, Charlie Albright has been praised for his “jaw-dropping technique and virtuosity meshed with a distinctive musicality” by The New York Times. Recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and Gilmore Young Artist Award, Albright won the Ruhr Klavier Festival Young Artist Award presented by Marc-André Hamelin (Germany) and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In addition to performing, Albright is sought after as a speaker, masterclass instructor, teacher, and competition judge. His debut commercial recording, Vivace, has sold thousands of copies worldwide and the first two parts of a 3-part Schubert Series of live, all-Schubert recordings was released in 2017 and 2020.
Albright regularly appears at major concert halls, festivals, and with artists of all genres worldwide. In 2019, he was the guest artist at the Isaac Stern Auditorium main stage of Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Leon Botstein, and made his return appearances at the 2019 Bergen International Festival in Norway, where he performed a sold-out solo recital and was given the honor of performing the festival’s traditional yearly concert of the Grieg Piano Concerto at Grieg Concert Hall with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
Albright regularly collaborates with artists from all genres, including vocalist/conductor Bobby McFerrin and violinist Joshua Bell. He has collaborated five times with revered cellist Yo-Yo Ma: at the honorary degree ceremony at Harvard University for Senator Ted Kennedy; at a 10th anniversary remembrance of 9/11; at the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison; at the Aspen Institute’s Citizen Artistry conference in New York; and with the Silk Road Project.
A firm believer in education, Albright founded the Charlie Albright Scholarship and Charlie Albright Piano in collaboration with the Centralia College Foundation in his hometown. The Scholarship provides financial aid to music students, and money was raised to purchase a new 9-foot Steinway Piano for the college’s Corbet Hall.
Winner of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts and named one of the “15 Most Interesting Seniors,” Albright was also named Artist-in-Residence for Harvard University’s Leverett House, a position last filled by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Albright’s numerous awards include First Prize in both Solo and Ensemble categories at the 2006 New York National Piano Competition; First Prize and all other awards offered at the 2006 Eastman International Piano Competition; Third Prize at the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition; Semi-Finalist Award and Best Performance of a Work by Liszt in Stage I at the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition; and the Vendome Virtuoso Prize and the Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award at the 2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition.
Born in Centralia, Washington, Albright began piano lessons at the age of 3. He studied with Nancy Adsit and earned an Associate of Science degree at Centralia College while still in high school. He was the first classical pianist in the Harvard College/New England Conservatory 5-Year AB/MM Joint Program, completing a Bachelor’s Degree as an Economics major and Pre-Med student at Harvard, and a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance at NEC, having studied with Wha-Kyung Byun. He graduated with the prestigious Artist Diploma (A.D.) from The Juilliard School, having studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky.
