The Department of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College welcomes Pianist R. Kent Cook as its first guest artist of the new performance season. Cook will perform the Preludes for the Piano by Claude Debussy on Friday, September 15, 2006, beginning at 7:30 p.m. This guest artist recital will be presented in Jussi Björling Recital Hall on the Gustavus campus. Dr. Cook’s performance is sponsored by the Department of Music and is free and open to the public.
R. Kent Cook is an associate professor of piano at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. As a soloist and chamber musician he has appeared in concert halls across the United States and abroad in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, England and Italy. A native of Texas, he attended Baylor University, studying with Roger Keyes. He earned both his masters and doctoral degrees at Indiana University and studied as a Fulbright Scholar in Frankfurt, Germany.
For Friday’s performance, Cook will present the Preludes for the Piano composed by Claude Debussy. The two books of preludes written in 1910 and 1913 include twenty-four separate works for piano.
Cook’s performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in Jussi Björling Recital Hall and is free and open to the public. Following the recital, a reception for the guest performer will be held in the recital hall lobby.