Award-winning South African pianist Megan-Geoffrey Prins will present a free solo recital on Friday, 28 July at 20:00 in the Endler Hall at Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Music Department. The concert will be preceded by public master classes from 14:00 to 17:00, also hosted by the SU Music Department.
Prins is currently studying towards a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music in the USA, where he completed his Master’s degree under famed pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi. Last year, Prins won the ATKV Muziq Instrumental Competition. In 2015, he won the Fifth UNISA National Piano Competition and the inaugural Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival Competition. The Cleveland Institute of Music recently awarded him the Sadie Zellen Piano Prize and the coveted Maurice and Judith Kaplow Prize for Uncommon Creativity.
Throughout his Master’s and Doctorate degree studies, Prins relied on the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the National Arts Council of South Africa, private sponsors, and online fundraising campaigns to fund his studies. He hopes to raise enough money to complete his final year of doctoral studies before he returns to the USA at the end of August 2017.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the emotional and financial support I’ve received throughout my studies,” says Prins. “I’m delighted that the SU Music Department is hosting this free concert. It is an opportunity for me to thank all those who have supported me so far and I will be able to update guests on my current fundraising progress.”
In the first half of the recital, Prins will perform works by Joseph Haydn, Frédéric Chopin, and South African composer Graham Newcater. The second half will feature selections from Sergei Lyapunov’s 12 Etudes d`Exécution Transcendante. For more information, please visit Prins’ website at www.megangeoffreyprins.com.