WCU professor from Radnor to play piano at Carnegie Hall
Professor Vincent Craig set to perform recital Thursday in NYC
When West Chester University professor Vincent Craig was 8 years old, he remembers standing in Columbia Artists Management Hall looking across 57th street at Carnegie Hall and thinking, “it would be cool to play there someday.”
For the Staten Island native, that someday is this Thursday. Now 48, and after countless hours of practice, Craig will get to stand in Carnegie Hall and look across the street and remember where his dream began.
Brought up in an age where watching a recital in surround-sound meant turning down the volume on the television and turning on the stereo, Craig remembers watching the Nov. 28, 1976 performance of Andre Watts a second time, after he had already watched the performance live.
“It changed my life,” Craig said. “To see another person of color perform, it was inspiring.”
In a way, Craig has followed in the footsteps of Watts, after 40 years of practicing and multiple public performances starting when he was 8 years old at the Columbia Artists Management Hall, for the WNEW television station in New York, and for the USA Television Network a few years later.
Inspired by musicians such as Watts, and Frances Walker, Craig plans on including music written by composers of African descent.
“I believe in the quality of the music and feel it is under-represented in performance,” he said.
On both sides of his family, Craig said that he’s a descendant of slaves. Currently an associate professor of piano at West Chester University, Craig began his musical studies under Nancy Sartin, a piano teacher who lived across the street, attended the La Guardia High School of Music and the Arts, and then earned his bachelor’s degree in piano performance from 1990.
He earned his master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from the Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University in 1992, and 2002, respectively.
A resident of Radnor, Delaware County, Craig has performed multiple recitals at various locations in the Main Line area, including the Tredyffrin-Easttown Library, and Main Line Unitarian Church, where he is the director of music, and packed faculty recitals at West Chester University.
Of the music Craig plans to play on the first half of his performance at Carnegie Hall, he said Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Harry Burleigh, connect him with his heritage.
“There’s no reason to waste time in music you don’t believe in,” he said. “I have a commitment to champion this music.”
Craig’s recital webpage can be viewed at: www. carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2017/6/15/0800/PM/ Vincent-Craig-Piano/. Oberlin College in