A series of five concerts celebrating 200 years of French keyboard music will be presented by DePaul University faculty member and pianist Eteri Andjaparidze and members of her AmerKlavier Studio. All of the programs are free and open to the public.

To herald the opening of this ambitious winter series, the DePaul Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Cliff Colnot, will play an all-Ravel program on Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. Andjaparidze, founder and director of the AmerKlavier Studio, is the soloist in a performance of the composer’s Piano Concerto in G Major.

“Pour le piano” events are scheduled on four successive Thursday evenings in February. All the performers are students and faculty of the AmerKlavier Studio, a nurturing center for advanced piano study developed by Andjaparidze at the DePaul School of Music in 2001.

Feb. 7, 8 p.m., DePaul Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave., Chicago. This program explores the music of the 19th century romantics—Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Franck, Chausson, Chabrier and Bizet. Characteristically, this group of composers emphasized melody in their writings and cultivated musical genres previously popularized by Chopin—especially the nocturne, impromptu and barcarolle.

Feb. 14, 8 p.m., DePaul Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave., Chicago. This program is devoted to piano pieces by Debussy and Ravel. The tonal world created by Debussy, which ran parallel to the rise of impressionist art and literary symbolism, was conceived to appeal to the senses rather than intellect. Debussy’s daring and original music and, later, Ravel’s revolutionary works, set the stage for the development of 20th century music.

Feb. 21, 8 p.m., DePaul Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave., Chicago. This concert centers on the modernists, whose greatest achievement was the expansion of the piano’s expressive potential. This group of composers includes Poulenc, Satie, Messiaen, Milhaud and Boulez.

Feb. 28, 5:30 p.m., DePaul Recital Hall, 804 W. Belden Ave., Chicago. This offering, a colloquium and demonstration titled “Great French Pianists,” features student presentations as well as audio/video recordings of legendary pianists including Marguerite Long, Alfred Cortot and Robert Casadesus.

According to Andjaparidze, her “voracious appetite” for French music developed under the influence of her longtime colleague Alain Declert, program director of the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, Texas. Andjaparidze, for several years a member of the Institute’s summer faculty, has invited Declert to serve as consultant for the “Pour le piano” series. “This project also is meant to pay tribute to the country that five centuries ago gave the world Vincent de Paul, whose teachings are the guiding principles behind our university,” said Andjaparidze.

Over the past seven years, many of the AmerKlavier Studio’s projects have exhibited a multi-cultural focus. In December 2007, Andjaparidze was joined by several of her students and DePaul composer and pianist, George Flynn in a highly lauded residency in her native Tbilisi, Georgia. During a week of concerts and master classes, the DePaul contingent, which included both Americans and native Georgians, performed piano pieces by Flynn alongside works by Georgian composers.

For more information on the series, visit the School of Music Web site at http://music.depaul.edu/NewsAndEvents/index.asp or call the School of Music at 312-325-7260.