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With three towering works of the piano repertoire, acclaimed pianist Marc-André Hamelin will open Tuesday Musical’s 2025-26 Akron Concert Series at EJ Thomas Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m.

“A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times), Hamelin “routinely performs the world’s most treacherous repertoire with his characteristic ease” (NPR’s Tiny Desk series).

In Akron, he will tackle one of the most difficult piano pieces ever written: Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, conjuring a world of haunting shadows, glittering water nymphs and terrifying specters.

Also on the program are Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29, known as the Hammerklavier — a masterpiece of immense power and emotional depth — and Robert Schumann’s enchanting Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), a collection of short, intimate pieces that are like musical postcards from a forest walk.

Tuesday Musical’s Margaret Baxtresser Pianist this season, Hamelin will also teach a masterclass for students from Kent State University and Tuesday Musical’s Brahms Allegro Junior Music Club.

One of the Brahms Allegro students, young pianist Saya Uejima, will open the Oct. 21 concert. She is a student at Green High School in Uniontown, Ohio.

Hamelin regularly performs around the globe with the leading orchestras and conductors of our time and gives recitals at major concert venues and festivals worldwide. This September he is in Australia and Asia for concerto and recital appearances with the Sydney Symphony under Sir Donald Runnicles, concerto engagements with the Wuxi, Ningbo, and Shenzhen symphonies, and solo recitals in Adelaide, Xiamen and Shenzhen. He will also appear this season with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, San Diego Symphony with Thomas Guggeis, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on tour. European appearances include recitals in Italy, the Netherlands, and Berlin.

Tuesday Musical’s Margaret Baxtresser Annual Piano Concert is named in honor of the internationally known American concert pianist who resided in Akron for many years before her passing in 2005. Baxtresser was born and raised in Detroit, and at age 13 was a soloist with the Detroit Symphony. At age 20 she won the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Foundation International Piano Competition, and a robust career followed as she soloed with major symphony orchestras around the world. In 1994, she became the first American artist to perform in Vietnam after the Vietnam War, and she was invited by that country’s government to return several more times. She taught piano at Kent State University for 25 years. Baxtresser Pianists on Tuesday Musical’s series since 2007 have included Emanuel Ax, Conrad Tao, Yuja Wang, Aaron Diehl, Simone Dinnerstein and others.

Tickets for the Oct. 21 concert start at $19 at tuesdaymusical.org and 330-761-3460.

Tuesday Musical has a decades-long history of providing free tickets for all students and bus funding for student groups. Student tickets are available on concert night at the EJ Ticket Office and bus funding information is available at 330-761-3460 and info@tuesdaymusical.org.