Press Release

January 25, 2024

For Immediate Release

Press Contact:

Gail Wein - (646) 484-9691

ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com

Baruch Performing Arts Center's Spring 2024 Performances

Pianist Maxim Lando, classical accordionist Hangzhi Wang and Chromic Duo's toy piano and electronics fill BPAC's intimate Engelman Recital Hall with compelling music

Plus Heartbeat Opera's new production of Eugene Onegin and a world-premiere by Daniel Schlosberg and Amanda Quaid

This spring, Baruch Performing Arts Center's "perfect hall for chamber music" (New York Times) is full of performances. From the sounds of award-winning pianist Maxim Lando to classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang to the ingenuity of the Chromic Duo on keyboards and electronics, audiences will experience the best chamber music anywhere.

Ticket offer (valid til Feb. 9): Purchase tickets to all three recitals for a special price of $68 with code ADVANCE at this link.

Also this spring: Heartbeat Opera returns with their annual spring festival, presenting a new arrangement of Eugene Onegin alongside the world premiere of Daniel Schlosberg & Amanda Quaid’s The Extinctionist.

Tickets to all shows available at bpac.baruch.cuny.edu

Downloadable images & bios available in the digital press kit

February 9, 7:30 pm: Pianist Maxim Lando

Colorful classics by an award-winning performer

Award-winning pianist Maxim Lando performs Robert Schumann's Carnaval, Modest Mussorgsky’s evocative Pictures at an Exhibition, and the pianist’s own arrangement of Stephen Sondheim’s The Worst Pies in London from "Sweeney Todd." Schumann's Carnaval is a timely choice, as it depicts pre-Lenten festivities within a few days of Mardi Gras 2024.

Maxim Lando performs Busoni's Super Carmen

Lando has been praised for his “brilliance and infectious exuberance” (The New York Times) and called a “dazzling fire-eater” by ARTS San Francisco. He is recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award, earned First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and is winner of the New York Franz Liszt International Competition and The Vendome Prize.

Tickets $35 ($15 for students and Baruch staff).

March 5, 7:30 pm: Chromic Duo

Multi-media duo plays toy pianos merged with electronics

Chromic Duo - Lucy Yao and Dorothy Chan - blends classical music, toy piano, and electronics into genre-fluid performances and installations. Inspired by the small wonders of the everyday, they compose sound worlds inspired by the multitudes as Third-Culture-Kids discovering their voices within the vast Asian-American diaspora.

Chromic Duo music reel

Chromic Duo often blurs the lines between film, virtual reality, and augmented reality, but the heart of their work remains constant: to create an intimacy and sense of wonder in their music that unravels the story of self-discovery and passion, connecting the dots between grief and joy, belonging and displacement, and creating community in boundary-pushing performances and web-based experiences.

Tickets $35 ($15 for students and Baruch staff).

April 19, 7:30 pm: Classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang

Acclaimed for her “staggering virtuosity,” the classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang is praised for her captivating stage presence and performances that display passion and finesse. A groundbreaking artist, Hanzhi was the first accordionist to win Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the first to be named Musical America’s “New Artist of the Month,” and the first solo accordionist on WQXR Radio’s Young Artists Showcase.

Hanzhi Wang performs her own transcription of Mendelssohn's Spinning Song

Hanzhi made her Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center debuts in 2017. Her awards include the Ruth Laredo Prize and Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists of YCA and First Prize in the 40th Castelfidardo International Accordion Competition in Italy. She inspires the next generation of accordionists with lectures, performances, and master classes at the Manhattan School of Music, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Tianjin Music Conservatory, and across Europe. 

Tickets $35 ($15 for students and Baruch staff).

On April 2-14, Heartbeat Opera returns to BPAC for their annual spring festival. Alternating nights, the critically-acclaimed company presents a new 100-minute adaptation of Tchaikovsky's exquisite masterpiece Eugene Onegin alongside the highly anticipated premiere of Daniel Schlosberg and Amanda Quaid's thrilling The Extinctionist.

Baruch Performing Arts Center is at 55 Lexington Avenue (enter on 25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues, on the south side of the street) in the heart of Manhattan. Praised for its superb acoustics, the Rosalyn and Irwin Engelman Recital Hall has been called "a perfect hall for chamber music" by Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times.