Event

Polish Music at Polish Hall - Igor Lipinski - piano recital

Described as the "Magician at the Piano" and the "next Victor Borge", Eastman School of Music graduate Igor Lipinski is a concert pianist who enchants audiences with his unique musical talent and sleight-of-hand artistry. As the winner of the WQXR Classical Comedy Contest at Caroline's on Broadway, Lipinski continues to perform his innovative program of music & magic in recital halls and with the symphony orchestras throughout the United States. Teller, of Las Vegas magicians duo Penn & Teller, calls Lipinski an original: "He thrills you on the piano. He mystifies you with magical illusions. And he keeps you laughing with his impudent, charismatic charm."

Igor Lipinski's "The Secrets of Music" reveals enlightening discoveries behind classical music's masterpieces in the fashion of a highly interactive piano recital. In one of his award-winning showpieces, Lipinski explains the complexity behind Bach's Fugue with the help of a spectator from the audience and a shuffled deck of cards. In order to describe the process of musical variations, he first plays the excerpts from Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, only to improvise a set of variations on a theme selected by the audience member that leads to a surprising finale. Inspired by 1839 Monologues Pianistiques, Franz Liszt's first piano recitals, Lipinski announces his repertoire from the stage, involves the audience in his musical conversations and often features a surprising element of innovative magic.

In his second appearance at Portland's Polish Hall, Lipinski will perform an eclectic selection of works by Arvo Pärt, Astor Piazzolla, Igor Stravinsky, J.S. Bach, Sergei Rachmaninov and Frederic Chopin. The concert will also feature special guest artists: ALDancers in preview from "ALLEGRO CON HUMORE" with musical excerpts from Tomas Svoboda's Etudes in Fugue Style.

Refreshments onsite: sweets, coffee, light spirits