Elena Letnanova, an acclaimed pianist from Bratislava, Slovakia, will play Polish, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Hungarian, and German compositions in a program dedicated to music from Central Europe at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, at the University of Rochester.
Sponsored by the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies and the Department of Music at the University of Rochester, the performance will be held in the lower level of Strong Auditorium. This first event in the 2003 season of the Skalny Lecture and Artist Series is free and open to the public.
Letnanova, associate professor at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, is a frequent visiting artist in the United States. She not only is a virtuoso pianist, but also an educator, writer, and translator.
She has performed in the world's major music capitals from Vienna to Rome and Prague, and in the United States in such cities as San Francisco, New York, and Dallas. This will mark a return visit to Rochester. For her program, Letnanova will perform works by romantic as well as contemporary composers, including Liszt, Smetana, Chopin, Berger, and Slavicky.
The Skalny Center, which was established with a generous grant from the Louis Skalny Foundation, supports research and teaching about the historical legacy and political and economic changes within Central Europe. Its lecture series, film festival, and other activities offer the community opportunities to learn about Poland and its people.
For more information about the concert, contact the center at (585) 275-9898.