Pianist Santiago Rodriguez Performs

Mar 6, 2018

By Tommy Riggs

FREDERICK, Maryland—World-renowned pianist Santiago Rodriguez will be the guest artist at Hood College’s annual Carhart-Lester Guest Pianist Concert on March 6 at 7:30 p.m. in Brodbeck Music Hall.

Rodriguez has performed internationally with leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Weimar Philharmonic, the Yomiuri-Nippon Symphony Orchestra of Japan, the Tampere Philharmonic of Finland and the Berliner Symphoniker. He has performed more than 65 concertos during his 35-year performing career. He has been called “a phenomenal pianist ” by the New York Times and “among the finest pianists in the world” by the Baltimore Sun.

Born in Cárdenas, Cuba, Rodriguez began his piano studies at age 4. After Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba, Rodriguez’ parents sent him and his younger brother to America under the care of the Catholic Charities. He spent the next six years in an orphanage in New Orleans. Two years after his arrival, Rodriguez made his concert debut at age 10, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 with the New Orleans Philharmonic. His international career was launched in 1981 when he won the Silver Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. His life and artistry were profiled on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kurault in 1993. He has also been featured numerous times on ABC, NBC, PBS, CNN, BBC and CBC.

Rodriguez has presented master classes at many major music schools and national teacher’s conferences in the U.S. He is also the artistic director of the Florida International Piano Competition and Artist-in-Residence at the Endless Mountain Music Festival in Pennsylvania. He holds a master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied on full scholarship as a pupil of Adele Marcus, and he completed his undergraduate studies magna cum laude with William Race at the University of Texas-Austin.

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Wayne L. Wold at 301-696-3782 or woldw@hood.edu.