SPAMTA to Host Pianist at UWSP

For the Metro Wire

The Stevens Point Area Music Teachers Association will host a free piano recital featuring Dr. Nicholas Phillips next week.

The concert will be held Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 10:30 AM in Michelsen Concert Hall on the UW-Stevens Point campus.

The solo piano recital will include works by Haydn, Schubert, Debussy and Vine. The concert is free and open to the public.

Pianist Nicholas Phillips is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he teaches applied piano, class piano, piano ensemble, piano literature, and piano pedagogy. He is active as a soloist and collaborative artist, having performed across the United States.

He has also given solo recitals and performances in Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa.

Described by the New York Times as an “able and persuasive advocate” of new music, Phillips’ playing has been praised for its “bejeweled accuracy” (Fanfare) and as “razor-sharp yet wonderfully spirited” (American Records Guide). In 2011 he released two CDs on Albany Records: Portals and Passages, featuring piano music by American composer Ethan Wickman, and Boris Papandopulo: Piano Music, featuring solo piano music by the famous 20th-century Croatian composer.

His CD project, American Vernacular: New Music for Solo Piano (New Focus Recordings), features commissioned works written for him by 10 American composers. Impressions was released on Blue Griffin records in 2016, and features 21st century character pieces by living American composers.

A native of Indiana, Phillips began formal piano lessons in the preparatory program at Indiana University at the age of 10. He holds degrees in piano performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, Indiana University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Phillips is a Yamaha Artist. For more information, please visit www.nicholasphillips.net.