Internationally acclaimed 13-year-old pianist Adam Jackson visits Red Bank’s St. Thomas Episcopal Church Sunday for the first in a new series of Impromptu Classical Music Recitals.
There are prodigies, and then there are prodigies — the kind of undeniable talent that simply rockets to the head of the class, unconstrained by any seeming lack of life experience, and forcing observers to concede that their performance has “often surpassed those of seasoned adults.”
Classical music lovers on the Greater Red Bank Green can see and hear one in action this Sunday.
The label of “prodigy” is a pretty apt description of Adam Jackson, a 13-year-old United Kingdom-born New Yorker who won his first major competition when he was 10 — three years after taking up the piano at the late-bloomer age of 7 — and guested with a symphony orchestra around that same time, performing a piece by a rather well-known prodigy of the past: W.A. Mozart.
Since then, the young keyboard wizard has studied with renowned mentors, continued to rack up awards, and performed to tremendous praise at venues across North America and Europe. On Sunday, Adam comes to Red Bank for a Prodigies solo concert at a location that must be regarded as one of the Greater Green’s best kept secrets: St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
Proud possessor of a “wonderful Yamaha piano,” the West Side house of worship at 26 East Sunset Avenue has been selected as the area venue of choice for the Impromptu! Classical Music Recital Series, a touring presentation produced by the Drozdoff Society, an organization whose “core mission is the preservation, promulgation, publication, performance, and recording of the solo piano and voice compositions of the Russian-American pianist and composer, Vladimir Drozdoff, 1882-1960.”
The work of Drozdoff will be represented on Sunday’s 3 p.m. program with the composer’s Elegia, Larghetto in B minor, and Andantino in F. Adam is also slated to perform pieces by J.S. Bach (Prelude and Fugue in D minor), Franz Haydn (Sonata No. 49 in E flat), Franz Liszt (Sonetto 104 del Petrarca) and Granados (Fandango de Candil).
Next in the series at St. Thomas Church: a May 13 appearance by 24-year-old composer-pianist Nicolas Namoradze. Call (732) 939-7683 or go here for tickets ($20 per person) to either of the concerts, with admission to both events available at the discounted price of $30.
