The DePaul School of Music’s newest acquisition—a splendid Steinway concert grand piano—is cause for celebration at the school’s AmerKlavier™ concert April 1. The concert program, a salute to Rachmaninoff on his 131st birthday, marks the public unveiling of the fine instrument, which was delivered to the Lincoln Park Campus in late January.

The engaging all-Rachmaninoff program of complete two-piano music features internationally renowned artist and DePaul faculty member Eteri Andjaparidze, who is joined by her distinguished colleague, pianist Vladimir Feltsman, and six of her students. Concert time is 8 p.m. in the DePaul Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave. The concert is free of charge and open to the public.

In early January, Andjaparidze, accompanied by new DePaul piano faculty member Aglika Angelova headed to New York to select a new piano for the music school. Their search ended when they spotted a nine-foot concert grand, Model D, at the Steinway factory in Long Island City. “It simply spoke to us,” Andjaparidze recalls.

The DePaul School of Music now proudly boasts ownership of two Steinway grand pianos. Shortly after the newest piano’s arrival in Chicago, the AmerKlavier™ Studio, directed by Andjaparidze, performed a private preview concert in celebration of Chopin’s birthday. The April 1 concert will mark the public inauguration for the piano.

This April 1 concert is presented by DePaul’s AmerKlavier™ Studio, an exceptional piano program created by Andjaparidze. This nurturing course of study seeks to address the individual skills and strengths of aspiring pianists through special artistic/educational projects and a concert/colloquium series. Andjaparidze, whose own successful international career has taken her to major music centers around the globe, joined the DePaul School of Music faculty in the fall of 2001.

Rachmaninoff was one of the finest pianists ever born, and during his lifetime, he was perhaps better known as a piano virtuoso than as a composer. In his own music, however, he chose not to exploit his virtuosity, but rather to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Three of the composer’s early and most popular piano works—the Russian Rhapsody and Suites No. 1 (Op. 5) and No. 2 (Op. 17)—will be performed by Andjaparidze’s students Monica Pavel and Hanjin Sa; Lisa Zilberman and Olga Sklyanskaya; and George Oakley and Inga Kashakashvili.

The second half of the program will feature a performance of the spirited Symphonic Dances (Op. 45), with Andjaparidze and Vladimir Feltsman at the two pianos. Rachmaninoff’s later works never achieved the popularity of the early pieces during the composer’s lifetime. Sadly, Rachmaninoff would not live to see his last work, the Symphonic Dances originally scored for full orchestra, become a favorite repertory staple throughout the world. The composer arranged this piece for two pianos shortly before his death in 1943.

The friendship between Feltsman and Andjaparidze dates to their student years together at the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory. In the intervening years, they have collaborated on several occasions and served as faculty at the PianoSummer at New Paltz International Institute/Festival in New York. Both Feltsman and Andjaparidze are official Steinway Artists, as was Rachmaninoff, to whom the April 1 Steinway inauguration gala is dedicated.

For more information about this concert and other events sponsored by DePaul’s School of Music, call 773/325-7260.