Byline: The Register-Guard

A faculty piano recital will open the concert season this week at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, 961 E. 18th Ave.

UO School of Music

For more information, or to receive a complete calendar of events, call the UO music

Dean Kramer

Thursday, Beall Hall

Pianist Dean Kramer will perform four Ludwig van Beethoven piano sonatas as a special benefit for the Mount Pisgah Arboretum. Concert time is 8 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets are priced at $20, $15, and $10, available in advance from the Erb Memorial Union ticket office on campus, 346-4363, or at the door.

Much of Beethoven's musical inspiration came while he was in nature, and Kramer has chosen four Beethoven sonatas - the "Pathetique," "Moonlight," "Pastoral" and "Appassionata" - to reflect the sense of sanctuary he feels in the arboretum.

The recital will be the first featuring the UO School of Music's new Steinway Hamburg Model D concert grand piano, which Kramer and piano professor Claire Wachter personally selected at the Steinway factory in Germany earlier this year.

"It is a superlative instrument with an especially warm quality," Kramer said.

The piano is the second new Hamburg acquired by the school recently, making the University of Oregon one of the few music schools in the country to have two concert-level Hamburgs.