# The Piano Society, featuring Neal O'Doan



## itywltmt

En français

This week's installment of the January Pianothon will try and do two things: point out a collection of _substantial_, openly available piano music and highlight one of its many contributors.

The Piano Society (http://pianosociety.com/) "is proud to present its large collection of more than *5,000* high-quality classical keyboard recordings, produced by our artists consisting of both _professionals _and _skilled amateurs_. Visitors can find a wide range of music by famous as well as lesser-known classical composers."

As I write these lines, the site has about 5300 recordings by almost 175 artists, covering more than 250 composers, from _Albeniz _to _Zipoli_.

As stated in the above quote, the site provides _good to excellent_ quality tracks by professional and amateur pianists in *solo*, *duo*, *chamber *and even *concerto *settings.

I don't know if faculty members of large American Universities count as professional or amateur, but I wanted to point you to one particular artist who has provided some (in my opinion) impressive and "keeper" type performances - his name is *Neal O'Doan*.

Here is the biography he posts on the Piano Society website:



> Neal O'Doan studied piano at the *University of the Pacific* in Stockton, California earning his Bachelor and Master degrees under Professor Edward Shadbolt. He attended the *Juilliard School of Music* in New York, studying piano with Rosina Lhevinne and Martin Canin.
> 
> As guest soloist he has performed concertos with the Chicago, Seattle, Juilliard, Victoria (Canada) [...] Symphony Orchestras. He recorded concertos with the Royal Philharmonic and English Chamber Orchestras and has been a frequent guest artist in the Seattle Chamber Music Festival.
> 
> In 1999 he retired from his professorhip at the University of Washington Music School in Seattle, Washington having taught piano there for twenty-three years. He currently teaches piano students in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, and Olympia.


If you visit Mr. O'Doan's page, here are some of the works you will find:

Moszkowski - Piano Concerto in E Major 




[Complete Performance]

Chopin - Piano Concerto no. 2




[Complete Performance]

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto no. 1




[Complete Performance]

Also available elsewehere:

Liszt - Totentanz 





Good listening!

*January 27, 2012, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will be adding a new montage "Mozart & Bartok" to its Pod-O-Matic Podcast. Read our English and French commentary January 27th on the ITYWLTMT Blogspot blog.*


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