MEDIA CONTACT: Polly Burks
561-297-2595, pburks@fau.edu
BOCA RATON, FL (December 11, 2007) – The department of music in Florida Atlantic University’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters will present an evening of piano and violin featuring Gareth Johnson and Heather Coltman on Tuesday, December 18 at 8 p.m. The concert will take place in the University Theatre on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. Tickets are $15, and FAU students, faculty, staff and alumni may obtain free admission with ID. Tickets may be purchased by calling 800-564-9539, by visiting www.fauevents.com or at the door two hours prior to the concert.
The concert will feature “Polonaise de Concert, op. 4” by Henri Wieniawski, “Sonata for Violin and Piano” by Francis Poulenc, “Suite for Violin and Piano” by William Grant Still, “Tango No. 3 from Tango Suite” by Astor Piazzolla, as well as John Williams’ theme from Schindler’s List, “Remembrances” from Schindler’s List and “Devil’s Dance” from The Witches of Eastwick.
Gareth Johnson started playing the violin at the age of 10. Now 21, his passion and talent for the violin have made him one of the most acclaimed violinists of his generation.
The New York Times said that Johnson possesses “prodigious musical gifts—like Joshua Bell or Maxim Vengerov. He dominates the stage.” The Naples News said that “Not since the teen-aged Joshua Bell first captivated concert-goers with his remarkable talents have we been privileged to hear such a gifted young violinist......with a maturity far beyond his years.....a soft-spoken violinist who stood, almost still, on an empty stage and created magic.”
Johnson is currently a senior at the Lynn Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton and studies with concert violinist Elmar Oliveiera. His talents have taken him throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean to present as a soloist with major orchestras. Johnson has captured the attention and admiration from celebrities such as Itzhak Perelman and Branford Marsalis.
Coltman is chair of the FAU department of music. She is widely acclaimed across three continents as a solo and chamber musician, and has given recitals and performed with orchestras and on radio broadcasts throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, France, Germany, Spain, Greece and South Africa.
For further information on this event, call 561-297-3820.
- FAU -
