Piano tunes to fill Paradise Performing Arts Center
Concerts set for Friday, Sunday evenings
PARADISE » Former Paradise High School graduate Melissa Brown will perform Sunday, March 27 at the Paradise Performing Arts Center with a show called “Czech the Bachs,” a diverse concert highlighting the music of Antonin Dvorák and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Attendees can expect to see Brown, who is also the vice president of the Paradise Symphony Society board, playing the first movement of Bach’s “Piano Concerto in D minor.”
“Piano Concerto in D minor” was first a violin concerto that was either lost or discarded by Bach in favor of the keyboard version. On the “favorite” list of Bach compositions are his Brandenburg Concertos — a collection of six concerti that feature multiple select instruments each. The Symphony strings will perform “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.” This performance is dedicated to the memory of former Paradise Symphony Orchestra violinist Sheila Dixon.
Czechoslovakian composer Antonin Dvorák began his career more than a century after Bach. He was the first Bohemian composer to be recognized worldwide. By using folk themes from his country and sounds of nature, he turned them into the romantic music of his time. “Symphony No. 7” showcases his beautiful, lyrical style.
Brown has been a part of Butte County’s Monster Piano Concert for 10 years as well as numerous other organizations. While she was attending Butte College she was an accompanist for the voice classes.
Tickets may be purchased on the website www. paradisesymphony.org or on the night of the concert at the Paradise Performing Art Center, 777 Nuneley Road. The March 27 concert will begin at 6 p.m.
Las Vegas pianist
Pierce Emata will be performing a free concert called Fascinating Rhythms of George Gershwin, at the Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. Friday, March 25.
Emata said that he’s doing the concert as a free donation to the Paradise community.
He has followed the rebuilding of Paradise following the Camp Fire and said in an email, “My desire is to simply give something to the community, whom I know is and will be healing physically and psychologically for a long time.”
The concert is a series of informal commentary-concerts titled Concerts and Conversation.
He said guests can expect both little known and well known compositions of Gershwin, such as his own solo arrangement of his most popular songs and his solo version of the famous “Rhapsody in Blue,” which is usually performed with an orchestra.