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Arts & Entertainment

CLASSICAL ENCOUNTERS presents, THOMAS OTTEN, Pianist

Program: All Debussy Concert celebrating the 150th year of Debussy’s birth. Reverie, from Children’s Corner: The Snow is Dancing and Golliwage Cake Walk. Image Book 2.  2 Etudes from Book 2.  4 Preludes from Book 2 ending with Fireworks

Background: Pianist Thomas Otten, a California native born of German-American parents, has been hailed by the New York Times as “an extremely original player who puts a formidable technique at the service of his ideas.” He made his debut at age 17 with the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center, and has performed in Australia, Europe, the Caribbean, and throughout the U.S.  Dr. Otten has appeared in such venues as the Gasteig(Munich, Germany), Teatro Nacional (Santo Domino, Dominican Republic), Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the National Press Club, the German Embassy, and the Chautauqua and Brevard Summer Festivals; he has also performed at Severance Hall with the Miami String Quartet. His performances have been broadcast on both coasts, including WQXR New York, WGMS Washington, and KUSC Los Angeles.

The recipient of numerous national and international awards, Dr. Otten has won first prize in the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, the Palm Beach Invitational International Piano Competition, the International Masters Piano Competition, and the USIA Artistic Ambassador Competition. From 1991-1998, he was a member of the California Arts Council's prestigious Touring Artist Roster, performing recitals and giving residencies throughout the state. This led to exploration of highly diverse repertoire, including jazz and ragtime.

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Dr. Otten has studied with master teachers John Perry and Nelita True, biomechanics expert Barbara Lister-Sink, and the late Ylda Novik. He holds performance degrees from the USC (DMA, MM) and the University of Maryland, College Park (BM, summa cum laude). He twice received USC's Podolsky Prize awarded annually to the outstanding keyboard performer. He has studied collaborative performance with the legendary Gwendolyn Koldofsky and Martin Katz.  Furthermore, he is an accomplished baritone and has sung art song recitals on both coasts and the Midwest.  He has been a faculty member of the renowned summer lieder coaching program at the American Institute for Musical Study in Graz, Austria, and received a grant from UNC-CH to commission a work from noted composer Frances White, in which he performs as both pianist and singer, along with electronic sound.

Dr. Otten currently chairs the piano division at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he joined the faculty in 2002.  From 1997-2002, he headed the piano area at Kent State University in Ohio, where he was also co-founder of the Kent Piano Seminar. He has also been Artist-in-Residence at CSU Sacramento and faculty at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. His students have been prizewinners in competitions throughout the country, and they have received scholarships and assistantships at the finest conservatories and universities in the U.S.

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In demand as a performer and clinician, Dr. Otten gives recitals, master classes, and workshops throughout the U.S and abroad. He has played at the national conventions of the Conductors’ Guild, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, and the American Liszt Society. Dr. Otten’s debut CD, Tristan und Isolde:  Piano Transcriptions of Franz Liszt, was released by MSR Classics in 2005.

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