Joseph Kingma

OGLESBY - Lucia Matos will return to the stage at the Illinois Valley Community College Cultural Centre on May 13 to present an Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra concert featuring the music of Schumann and Respighi.

The featured soloist will be brilliant pianist Joseph Stern Kingma, who has been praised as spellbinding, poetic and flawless, and expressive by conductors and concert presenters across the United States. He brings an outstanding resume of performances, which include appearances with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Manassas Symphony, Illinois Valley Symphony and the Brazos Chamber Orchestra.

Kingma has also competed in numerous international competitions, winning Audience Favorite in rounds one and two of the 2015 Cincinnati World Piano Competition. As a semi-finalist in the 2012 New Orleans Piano Competition, the Musical Arts Society of New Orleans blog applauded his “dazzling technique.”

Kingma, who is in the final year of his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin, received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from Rice University, where he studied under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Roux. A committed teacher, Kingma is the assistant professor of piano at the Louisiana College in Pineville/Alexandria, La., where he teaches piano and piano-related courses. He currently lives in Alexandria, La. with his wife, Rebecca and their dog, Spunky.

Kingma will perform the Schumann Concerto for Piano in A Minor. Schumann’s piano concerto stands as one of the most famous of the Romantic era concertos, a beautiful work from beginning to end. Music critic David Frances Tovey said, “Every note inspires affection…Fashion and musical politics have tried to play games with Schumann’s reputation, but works like this remain irresistible.”

The concert will also include Elgar’s “Chanson de Nuit” and “Pines of Rome” by Ottorino Respighi, who is identified with the musical past, writing modern compositions of old Italian music. Respighi is most famous for composing a trilogy of tone poems between 1917 and 1928 in which he interpreted three different facets of Rome: its fountains, pines, and festivals. These works were responsible for encouraging Italian composers to write more symphonic works.

The concert will begin at 7 p.m. on May 13. Admission is by season subscription or individual ticket, available at the door or online at ivso.org. Adult tickets are$15, student K-college $5 with an ID. Sponsors for this concert include Illinois Cement Company, Maze Lumber and season sponsor Ning Communications. This concert is partially sponsored by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. The auditorium is accessible.