Renowned classical pianist, Randall Hodgkinson, returns to Ogunquit, where he has appeared multiple times as a soloist, and with Boston Chamber Music. This time he will be joined by equally acclaimed pianist, Leslie Amper, also his spouse, for a special performance on OPA’s Steinway, developed just for Ogunquit Performing Art’s 18th Annual Elizabeth Dunaway Burnham’s Piano Festival. They regularly perform together, a four hand, two piano repertoire. Perhaps their best known recording together is “The Manatee: Piano Music of Bernard Hoffer.”
The Program:
Brahms Selections from Waltzes opus 39
Mendelssohn Nocturne and Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Mozart Sonata in C
Schubert Grand Duo
Tickets to this performance are available three weeks before the concert date on this website. Click here to purchase in advance. Tickets may also be purchased at Crickets Corner Beach and Toy, 41 Shore Rd, the Ogunquit Welcome Center, 20 Shore Rd, and the Dunaway Center, 23 School St.
Randall Hodgkinson
“The finest performance I have ever heard of this very difficult piece. It was as if he was reading my mind….” Aaron Copland on hearing pianist Randall Hodgkinson performing his Piano Fantasy in Jordan Hall, Boston
Randy achieved recognition as the Grand Prize winner of the International American Music competition, sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation, winner in the JS Bach International Competition, and as the recipient of the Tanglewood Music Center’s prestigious Cabot Award. His solo orchestral performances include appearances with the Atlanta and Boston Symphony Orchestras, the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and internationally with the Iceland Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He has had successful collaborations with such well-regarded musical giants as Leonard Bernstein and Gunther Schuller.
As both Randy’s parents were musicians, Randy began his musical career at a very young age, with his mother as his first teacher. “Discovered” at a music festival at age 15, he was encouraged to apply for admission to the New England Conservatory of Music, where he earned a BA, MM, and AD.
His musical repertoire spans from JS Bach to Donald Marino, and he performed the world premier of the piano concerto of Gardner Read at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.
He currently serves on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, the Longy School of Music of Bard College, and Wellesley College.
Leslie Amper
“The highlight of the program was a most commanding and serious performance of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations…She built the series in a mighty span, intensely engaged throughout.” New York Times
Leslie Amper launched her career with a critically acclaimed debut in the Carnegie Recital Hall. While still a conservatory student, she won the first annual Jordan Hall Honors Competition and was selected to play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto #3 at her graduation ceremony from The New England Conservatory of Music. Taking advantage of a program offered through the Pittsburgh public schools for serious high school musicians, Leslie further honed her musical talents during summers at highly regarded music camps and festivals.
A winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowship Grant, she performed in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, and Washington D.C. She also toured the United States as the musical component for the Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition 1934: A New Deal for Artists. An acknowledged scholar and practitioner of contemporary music, she is equally adept at accompanying silent film, and has compiled piano accompaniments at the Harvard Film Archives for the short films of King Vidor’s The Crowd, among others. She also performed onstage piano in Peter Sellars’ production of Chekhov’s A Seagull at the American National Theater. Leslie has continued to lecture and perform internationally in England, Italy and Austria, and at Art Museums around the country, including but not limited to the National Gallery of Art, the Norton Museum of Art. In 2020, she performed virtual concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
She currently teaches at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, the New England Conservatory Preparatory Department, and Wheaton College. She has held residencies at the Universities of Washington and Arizona, and has lectured at Boston University and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as at the New Hampshire Music Festival, where she is a regular performer.