Well-known pianist to return to Rexburg for annual free performance
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The following is a news release from Brigham Young University-Idaho.
REXBURG — Pianist Del Parkinson will perform a program entitled “Once Upon a Time” Wednesday, September 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Barrus Concert Hall of the Eliza R. Snow Center for the Performing Arts at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg. The concert is free and no tickets are required.
As is typical of Parkinson’s annual performances in Rexburg, the program will blend narration with live performance. He will describe the story behind each piece before playing it.
“The program demonstrates the narrative power of music in selections by Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Bernstein and Gershwin,” he said. “Music can express that which words cannot. Music will paint pictures, spin a yarn and convey emotions. Each masterwork on this program tells a tale.”
Parkinson has been named to the international roster of Steinway artists, has been the recipient of BYU-Idaho’s Eliza R. Snow award for performing and visual arts and has seven CDs in release internationally.
He began studying piano at age five in his hometown of Blackfoot. He received a Fulbright-Hays grant for graduate study in London, and he holds a doctor of music degree from Indiana University and a postgraduate diploma from The Juilliard School. He was coordinator of piano instruction at BYU-Idaho, where he taught for eight years. He is now professor of piano at Boise State University, where he joined the faculty in 1985.