New Piano CD "Debut" by Christopher Atzinger
St. Olaf Assistant Professor of Piano Christopher Atzinger has performed for audiences around the world, but he recently extended the reach of his music even further with his Debut CD.
The disc features the Northfield resident playing the works of legendary composers J. S. Bach and Beethoven, as well as modern American composers Samuel Barber and Gregory Fritze. The idea for the CD actually came from Fritze, a colleague and friend of Atzinger’s who is chair of the Composition Department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The two started working on the record, which features the premiere recording of Fritze’s 1989 piano sonata, in 2002.
Atzinger says the process of putting together a CD, from learning the music to securing a label to handling mass production, was a new adventure. “It is the type of experience that you can’t really learn by reading about,” he says.
Last year Atzinger won medals at both the New Orleans International Piano Competition and the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati. He has performed in Austria, Italy, France, Spain and Canada in addition to performances in the United States highlighted by concerts in New York, Chicago and Washington.
Listen to streaming audio samples from "Debut"
Note: Playback of these audio clips requires Windows Media Player and a broadband connection.
Sonata in A Major, Op. 101
Ludwig van Beethoven
Prelude and Fugue in G-sharp Minor, BWV 863
from "The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I"
Johann Sebastian Bach
