Free@3 Presents: Lori Sims, piano

Lori Sims received the Gold Medal at the 1998 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, where she also won the prize for the best performance of a work by Brahms. Ms. Sims's other awards include first prize co-winner of the 1994 Felix Bartholdy-Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin, winner of the 1993 American Pianists' Association Competition with outstanding distinction from the jury, and silver medalist in the 1987 Kosciuszcko Foundation Chopin Competition.
She has performed throughout North America, Europe, and China including engagements with the NordDeutscheRadio Orchester in Hannover, the Israel Philharmonic, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and the Indianapolis, Utah, Rockford, Pocatello, Ohio Valley, Florida State University and Kalamazoo Symphony orchestras. She has also appeared with the Denver Chamber, Memphis Symphony Chamber and Spokane Chamber orchestras. Her 2000 Alice Tully Hall recital debut received critical acclaim from Bernard Holland in the New York Times: she subsequently performed at Zankel Hall and Merkin Hall. In 2019 she made her tenth appearance at the prestigious Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, as a featured solo-recitalist, master class artist, and chamber artist.
At Western Michigan University since 1997, Ms. Sims was named the John T. Bernhard Professor of Music in 2003, one of thirteen named chairs at the school. As an artist-teacher, she has appeared at the Western Michigan University's SEMINAR for high school students, the Bayview Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, and at the Internationale Konzertarbeitswochen in Goslar, Germany.
Her discography includes three CD's with Naxos, "Lori Sims: Romantic", "Lori Sims: American Music" and a highly lauded live recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Ms. Sims received her Bachelor's Degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where she was a student of Leon Fleisher; her Master's Degree from the Yale School of Music as a student of Daniel Pollack and Claude Frank; and an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik, Theater, und Medien in Hannover, Germany under the tutelage of Arie Vardi.

Ms. Sims will be performing a series of preludes and Samuel Barber's Sonata Opus 26, a stunning work of piano virtuosity. A perennial favorite of our series, Ms. Sims never fails to leave her audiences breathless and delighted.
Free@3 is open to the public, the concerts are free to the community, and we hope to see you there!


Category: Live Music | Classical