Piatigorsky Concert - Cellist Evan Drachman and pianist Richard Dowling

Pianist Richard Dowling and cellist Evan Drachman will perform at 2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 16, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie. 

This event is free of charge and is open to the public.

The concert occurs as part of the Piatigorsky Series. Since 1990, the Piatigorsky Foundation has presented more than 4,000 performances, introducing the joy of live classical music in communities throughout the country. Piatigorsky artists play for audiences including seniors, schoolchildren, the economically disadvantaged, and those living in geographically remote areas.

Piatigorsky Foundation musicians are chosen for their artistry and ability to engage audiences through lively discussion. Artists share anecdotes and insights into the works they will perform. Concerts take place in informal settings including retirement communities, schools, churches, synagogues, hospitals, workplaces, libraries, and community centers.

Richard Dowling, Pianist

Hailed by The New York Times as “an especially impressive fine pianist,” Richard Dowling appears regularly across the United States in solo recitals, at chamber music and jazz/ragtime festivals, and as a guest soloist in concerto performances with orchestras. Career highlights include a sold-out New York orchestral debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, a solo recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in New York, and a special award from the National Federation of Music Clubs recognizing his outstanding performances of American music. In the United States, he has received nationwide attention for recitals seen on the PBS television program Debut, and heard on the NPR radio program Performance Today. 

Dowling is also a recording artist with over a dozen CDs of classical, chamber, ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1998, Dowling celebrated the centennial of the birth of George Gershwin by performing his complete solo and orchestral works for piano, including Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F, and the rarely‑heard Second Rhapsody and Variations on “I Got Rhythm.” Dowling just released a three-CD set of the complete solo piano works (54 rags, waltzes, and marches) of Scott Joplin, the renowned American ragtime composer, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the composer's death in 2017. Dowling is the first pianist in history to perform the complete cycle of Joplin's piano works in public. He will perform all-Joplin recitals nationwide throughout 2017.

Evan Drachman, Cellist

Cellist Evan Drachman is the founder and artistic director for the New York-based Piatigorsky Foundation, whose mission is to make live classical music a part of the fabric of everyday life, especially for communities that would otherwise not have the opportunity to hear it. The organization is named for Evan Drachman's grandfather, the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky.

Since graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1988, Drachman has appeared regularly as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals and chamber music performances in the United States. He also has played recitals in India, Great Britain, Sweden, Italy and Canada. He toured the Far East as a soloist with the Chinese-American Symphony in Taipei and gave recitals in Hong Kong and Macau. In 1994, Drachman performed with the Odessa Philharmonic in Odessa and Kiev. In July 1997, at the invitation of Mstislav Rostropovich, he returned to Russia to perform as soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Maestro Rostropovich at the Second World Cello Congress.

Career highlights for Richard Dowling include a sold-out New York orchestral debut at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, a solo recital at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in New York, and a special award from the National Federation of Music Clubs recognizing his outstanding performances of American music. Dowling celebrated the centennial of the birth of George Gershwin in 1998 by performing his complete solo and orchestral works for piano, including the familiar Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F, and the rarely-heard Second Rhapsody and Variations on "I Got Rhythm."

In 2001 he released Sweet and Low-Down, a compact disc containing virtually all of the solo piano works by Gershwin on the Klavier Records label. He recorded two CDs of popular piano works by Chopin for Piano Productions Recordings, Richard Dowling plays Chopin, Vols. I & II and a CD of cello and piano works, A Frog He Went a-Courting, Pairs of Pieces with his duo-partner, cellist Evan Drachman. In February 2004, Klavier Records released World's Greatest Piano Rags, a disc of Dowling playing a collection of his favorite American ragtime piano repertoire.

Program inquiries should be directed to Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.