Cornell Concert series opens Sept. 29 with composer-pianist Saul

The Cornell College Department of Music will present composer-pianist Walter Saul on Thursday, Sept. 29, in recital with members of Cornell’s music faculty. The concert, the first of four in the 2022–23 Cornell Concert Series, is at 7:30 p.m. in Ringer Recital Studio, Armstrong Hall. Admission is free. 

Saul will be in residence at Cornell beginning on Sept. 26, culminating with the Sept. 29 concert in which he and several Cornell faculty members will perform a concert of Saul’s piano and chamber works. 

The composer and pianist is emeritus professor of music at Fresno Pacific University, where he continues to guide students in master’s programs. He has received numerous Meet the Composer grants, and his many composition honors include 24 ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) awards, as well as composer of the year commissions from the North Carolina and Oregon Music Teachers Associations. 

He has released six CDs of his works, including the 2015 Naxos CD “Kiev 2014” on which all of his orchestral works are performed by the National Symphony of Ukraine under conductor Theodore Kuchar.

As a pianist Saul has performed and presented clinics extensively. He has served as clinician and adjudicator throughout the Carolinas and in Oregon and California. 

Saul has performed both books of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier from memory; Book I in 1975 and Book II in 1997, separating these performances by the same amount of time that separated their composition. In a further tribute to Bach, he completed “From Alpha to Omega,” his own volume of 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys. Three preludes and fugues from this work have been performed in Carnegie Hall in 2004 and 2009.

Saul holds degrees from Duke and Eastman universities. 

2022–23 Cornell Concert Series
The series this year features outstanding professional artists performing repertoire ranging from early to contemporary music. All concerts are at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Remaining concerts:

• The Baltimore Consort performs music of the Renaissance on period instruments Nov. 7 in Kimmel Theatre.
• The Chicago Brass Quintet, called “One of  the best brass quintets in the world” by The New York Times, performs Feb. 27, 2023, in First Presbyterian Church, Mount Vernon.
• Chicago a cappella will bring a concert of “American Songbook Classics” to Cornell on April 17, 2023, in Kimmel Theatre.

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