“Mozart’s Milieu,” a fortepiano recital of music by Preethi de Silva, emerita professor of music will be held Saturday, November 18, at 3:30 p.m. in Balch Auditorium, Scripps College. The event, continuing the College’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, is free and open to the public. For more information, please call the Scripps College Department of Music at (909) 621-8280.
A prolific musician, Mozart (1756-1791) wrote in almost every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, the keyboard sonata, and choral repertoire. His more than 600 works epitomizes the classical style of the 18th and 19th centuries and makes him one of the defining figures of the music of Western civilization.
De Silva will perform Mozart’s keyboard works Fantasy in C Minor, K. 475, and Sonata in C Minor, K. 457. The program will also include works by Mozart’s contemporaries Johann Gottfried Müthel, Johann Gottfried Eckard, Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, and Leopold Kozeluch. All music will be performed on
de Silva’s reproduction of an 18th-century Viennese fortepiano.
Preethi de Silva, an internationally renowned concert and recording artist, is professor of music emerita at Scripps College. Her recorded works of Mozart, Müthel, and J.S. and C.P.E. Bach have earned international acclaim. She was recently the guest artist at Oranienburg Castle near Berlin, and at Hamburg’s Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe—a showcase for one of the world’s best collections of rare antique keyboard instruments. Last spring, she organized a national conference at the College in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. De Silva is also the founder and artistic director of Con Gioia Early Music Ensemble. Con Gioia has received critical acclaim for its performances of baroque and classical music on period instruments.