Pianist Brian Ganz to Perform at CSM Prince Frederick Campus Feb. 8  

Award-winning pianist Brian Ganz returns to College of Southern Maryland (CSM) Prince Frederick Campus Feb. 8 to perform for the 20th year in the Ward Virts Concert Series.  

Ganz has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras throughout the United States and in Taipei, Taiwan. He has worked with conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Yoel Levi. At his performances at CSM, he traditionally includes a few works that are part of an ongoing project now in its 14th year, the performance of the complete works of Frederic Chopin.  

“Chopin is the music of my soul,” Ganz told Bethesda Today in February 2024. “His music stirs something at the very deepest level for me.”  

The Ward Virts Concert Series celebrates the life and talent of Ward Virts, a Southern Maryland pianist who died suddenly in 1993 in Spain. A group of Ward’s friends and classmates conceived the Ward Virts Piano Project to bring the love of life, beauty, and music that Ward embodied to a new generation of Southern Maryland students, performers, and appreciative audiences.   

The concerts are performed on a world-class handcrafted Bosendorfer Grand Piano, a gift to CSM’s Prince Frederick Campus from the Ward Virts Piano Project.    

Ganz is on the piano faculty of St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he is artist-in-residence, and has recently retired after 21 years on the piano faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. He is the artist-editor of the Schirmer Performance Edition of Chopin’s Preludes (2005). Pre-pandemic performance highlights include Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Alba Music Festival in Italy and with the National Philharmonic at Strathmore, Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 466 with the Annapolis Symphony, and Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with the Billings Symphony.    

Ganz will be performing Saturday, Feb. 8, starting at 2 p.m. in rooms 103-105 in Building B at the Prince Frederick Campus in Prince Frederick. Admission is free.    

To learn more about Brian Ganz, or to watch videos of his performances, please visit  https://www.brianganz.net/.