Friday night will be a blast from the past as Franz Liszt rejoins the living for a couple hours to perform his music in “Liszt and the Last Years: A Dramatic Monologue.”
No, it’s not a zombie Liszt, but San Angelo favorite Michael Schneider bringing his interactive piano concert to the CJ Davidson Center at ASU.
“Michael Schneider is a brilliant pianist,” said Hector Guzman, conductor of the San Angelo Symphony, “he’s actually from San Angelo and he has been the winner of several international competitions.”
Schneider, ever humble, will distribute the credit to a multitude of San Angeloans that made his journey possible, beginning with his mother who taught piano.
“To keep me out of trouble she would always put me in her lap,” he explained. “She was teaching my older brother and sister pretty regularly.”
One day after his siblings had already left for school, she heard the very song she’d been teaching being played by none other than her 3-year-old son.
Thereafter, Schneider’s lessons moved into the express lane.
Fast forward eight years and Schneider won the young musician competition for the San Angelo Symphony, with whom he also performed on stage.
Schneider says that was the moment that decided his career.
Many competitions and a doctorate in piano later, Schneider continues to perform and teach, and is bringing a new kind of performance to San Angelo.
“As a musician there are so many good musicians out there, you have to be very imaginative,” explains Schneider, “playing the piano well isn’t good enough.”
That’s why the concert on Friday features a new, interactive twist on the classic piano recital.
“He’s going to be interacting with the audience and dressed like Liszt,” said Guzman. “That is very unusual and I think it will be successful.”
The audience will be privy to the history of Liszt, as well as Schneider taking on the role of classical music’s first ‘rockstar.’
“Perhaps the greatest pianist in history, he was the first superstar of the classical world,” explained Guzman, “wherever he played, crowds would gather.”
“Franz Liszt is a composer I’ve loved for a long time now,” expressed Schneider as he gave detail on the life of Liszt, including the first charity concerts, “he was constantly giving of his own talents, aside from that he was an unbelievable showman…women would throw themselves at him and try to tear his shirt.”
Schneider recognizes that people are not fans of sitting still and quiet for 60 to 70 minutes, “I’ve kind of developed my program in the sense of a one-man play, where I’m portraying an aged Franz Liszt reminiscing on his life.
“I hope people come Friday night and what they get from it, is to walk away with a strong sense of who Franz Liszt was and his contribution to the music world,” said Schneider.
The concert will be held at the CJ Davidson Center in the Houston-Hart University Center on the campus of Angelo State University at 7:00 p.m.
Call the Symphony office at (325)658-5877 for reservations.
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