PIANIST MURRAY PERAHIA CLOSES PU CONCERT’S 2016-17 SEASON: Pianist Murray Perahia will perform the final concert of Princeton University Concert’s 2016-17 Season at Richardson Auditorium on Thursday, May 11 at 8 p.m. The program will feature works by J.S. Bach, Franz Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Pianist Murray Perahia first performed at the Richardson Auditorium in the spring of 1976, shortly after winning the Leeds Piano Competition. Forty years later, he returns to Princeton University Concerts (PUC) on Thursday, May 11 at 8 p.m. His program for the Paderewski Memorial Concert, featuring works by J.S. Bach, Franz Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, will be preceded by a pre-concert event at 7 p.m., free to all ticketholders during which the student winners of this season’s Creative Reactions Contest will read their winning reactions to concerts on the PUC series. 

This concert, the last of PUC’s 123rd season, is sold out; obstructed view tickets can be purchased at the Frist Center Box Office by calling (609) 258-9220.

Having released a recording of Bach’s Complete French Suites for Deutsche Grammophon this past fall, Perahia will begin his program at Richardson Auditorium with the sixth suite in the set. For the pianist, this work is “Bach at the highest level …. I don’t think Bach wrote one note that didn’t have wider meanings and that wasn’t to be tackled with all one’s heart and soul.”

Born in New York, Perahia started playing piano at the age of four, and later attended Mannes College where he majored in conducting and composition. Mr. Perahia is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, and he holds honorary doctorates from Leeds University and Duke University.

For more information, visit princetonuniversityconcerts.org.