As part of the worldwide celebration marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, members of the AmerKlavier Studio and faculty of DePaul University’s School of Music will perform the complete cycle of the composer’s piano sonatas over the weekend of Oct. 28 and 29. Together 14 students and faculty members Aglika Angelova and Kristijan Civljak, led by Eteri Andjaparidze, the studio’s founder, present the pieces chronologically in two afternoon recitals. These programs, which are free and open to the public, will be presented in the DePaul Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave., Chicago. Concert time is 3 p.m.

For Andjaparidze, who created the AmerKlavier Studio in 2003, this project typifies her uncommon method of advanced piano instruction, which involves study of a composer’s complete works to allow students to gain a full understanding of them. “When in comes to the repertoire selections, less is never more for us.”

Although each student learns to perform only one Mozart sonata, as a group they thoroughly study the entire cycle as they listen to each other play during the preparation period. The weeks leading up to the concerts provide a unique opportunity to share knowledge and ideas about Mozart as a pianist as well as a composer. Andjaparidze calls this method “nutritious for anyone who has ever touched the piano.” Last year, the AmerKlavier Studio’s ambitious undertakings included the performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas.

Born on Jan. 27, 1756, Mozart was considered the greatest pianist of his time. He penned the sonatas as his own performance vehicles. These compositions fall into three groups; the earliest set of six works, (K. 279-284), are known as the Munich sonatas. The seven middle-period sonatas were written “on the road” in either Mannheim or Paris in 1777 and 1778; the four late sonatas, completed in Vienna between 1784 and 1789, correspond to Mozart’s heyday as a performer.

Andjaparidze brings her own renowned talents to the keyboard for these concerts, performing the Sonata in A, K. 331, and the Sonata in B flat, K. 570, on the Oct. 29 program. The spirited A-major, always a great favorite and Mozart’s best-known piano sonata, ends with the Rondo alla Turca, a wonderful evocation of the jangling percussion instruments of a Turkish marching band. The late B-flat Sonata was Mozart’s penultimate sonata; it was not performed in public until 1796, five years after the composer’s death. Renowned Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein considered this score “perhaps the most completely rounded of them all, the ideal of his piano sonata.” DePaul faculty member Angelova plays the Sonata in A minor, K. 310, on Oct. 28; Civljak, a former student of Andjaparidze and now a faculty colleague, performs the Sonata in F, K. 533, on Oct. 29.

Andjaparidze developed the AmerKlavier Studio to provide a nurturing course of study that seeks to address the individual skills and strengths of aspiring pianists through special artistic/educational projects and a concert/colloquium series. Andjaparidze also enjoys her own successful international career, performing in major music centers around the globe. She joined the DePaul School of Music faculty in the fall of 2001. A Grammy-nominated musician, she is recognized as an artist of tremendous versatility and boundless vision. Andjaparidze, a member of the Steinway Artist roster, has been honored in her native Republic of Georgia with the title, “People’s Artist of Georgia.”

For concert information, contact the DePaul School of Music at 773/325-7260.