CLASSICAL

you the kind of gift that he’s giving us.”

A 66-year-old native of Paris, Pascal Roge credits his mother, an organist, for his passion for the music of Poulenc.

“When my mother was pregnant, ... she was practicing, learning the ‘ Organ Concerto’ by Poulenc,” he said. “I believe that I heard that music and that somehow it influenced me because six years later, my mother played it again, and I

remember that I was so attracted to that music, like I have heard it before.”

The pianist promises that Springfield audiences will feel drawn to Saturday’s piece.

“It’s like a digest of Poulenc’s music,” he said. “You have the nostalgia; you have the cabaret music. The second movement is very funny because it’s an homage to Mozart.”

Ami Roge, a native of Tokyo, was not especially enthusiastic about French music until she began collaborating with Roge, whom she met in 2003 and married in 2009.

“I met Pascal because I went to one of his master classes,” Ami Roge said. “I really wanted to get into the French music a little bit more, so I said, ‘Well, who can I go see? ... Maybe the best person is Pascal Roge.’”

The pianist has a fan — and friend — in his conductor, too.

“His enthusiasm for life is just extraordinary,” Wilson said. “That’s one of the reasons I want to work with him.”

— Compiled by Vicki Elliston weekender@dispatch. com