Concert series presents ‘Two Pianos–Four Hands’

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The “Two Pianos–Four Hands” performance featuring Benjamin Hopkins and Christopher Goodpasture is Nov. 15 in Ingle Auditorium.

Two up-and-coming young concert artists will put their hands together for the “Two Pianos–Four Hands” performance Nov. 15 at Rochester Institute of Technology. Benjamin Hopkins and Christopher Goodpasture will headline the second installment of the 2013-2014 Performing Artists Concert Series at 8 p.m. in RIT’s Ingle Auditorium, Student Alumni Union.

The duo will perform a challenging program of works by master composers, including Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 and Saint Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, which will be narrated by Thomas Paul. There will also be a cameo appearance by Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Principal Cellist Stefan Reuss. Hopkins and Goodpasture are both recent graduates of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music and are each beginning to garner awards.

RIT audiences may recall Hopkins’ exciting performance of Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Paganini, during the concert series last year. Benjamin is the son of RIT electrical engineering professor Mark Hopkins.

Since winning first prize in the 2007 Thousand Islands International Piano Competition, Hopkins has received numerous awards and performed across North America and Europe. Most recently, he was nominated for the 2013 American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Award and won first prize in the Rio Hondo Symphony Young Artist Competition. He is currently pursuing graduate studies at USC.

A native of Los Angeles, Goodpasture was the top prize recipient of the 2011 International Klaviersommer Competition in Germany and judged to be in the highest category for both the 2010 Los Angeles Bicentennial Liszt Competition and the 2008 American Fine Arts Festival. He is currently attending the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he is pursuing an Artist Diploma.

The 2013-2014 concert series will also feature Eastman School of Music vocalists and a history of the blues with pianist Rod Blumenau and narrator Michael Lasser later in the academic year.

Tickets—$5 for students, $15 for faculty/staff/alumni and $20 for the general public—are available at the Gordon Field House box office or at the door on concert night, if available. For Visa or MasterCard phone orders, call 585-475-4121. For online purchases, go to the RIT University Arenas website.