Bachauer Winner Stephen Beus to debut at Beethoven Festival August 12

Dynamic concert pianist Stephen Beus will make his Beethoven Festival concert debut in a concert recently added to the Festival’s final week of its seven-week summer schedule, performing with his colleague Monte Belknap, violinist, and Festival Artists in Residence Russell and Leslie Harlow. Mr. Beus is distinguished internationally as a superb artist with phenomenal technique, winning audience and critical praise while a competitor in major piano competitions around the world. The concert on the 12th, billed as the final Salon Concert of the Festival’s 34th Summer Season, will be held at the Park City Community Church.

In the space of four months, American pianist Stephen Beus won first prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, first place in the Vendome Prize International Competition (Lisbon) and he was awarded the Max I. Allen Fellowship of the American Pianists Association (Indianapolis).

As a result of winning the Juilliard School Concerto Competition Mr. Beus made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Juilliard Orchestra and James DePreist, playing Prokofiev’s  Concerto No. 3. He has also performed as guest soloist with the Gulbenkian Symphony (Lisbon), Oxford Philomusica, the Tivoli Symphony (Copenhagen), the Tbilisi National Opera Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta (Seattle), the Royal Philharmonic of Morocco (Casablanca), the Vaasa Symphony Orchestra (Finland) as well as with the Hamburg, Indianapolis, Nashville, Santa Fe, Utah, Fort Worth, Tucson, Yakima, Bellevue, Salt Lake, Eastern Sierra, Corvallis, Jacksonville, Texarkana and Walla Walla Symphonies.

Virtuoso Violinist Monte Belknap is a veteran favorite with Beethoven Festival audiences, performing each summer and throughout the year with the Festival since 2004. Of his playing at the Festival, the Deseret News music critic stated, “his playing was infused with finely crafted lyricism that was mirrored by the others”.  He also performs with rave reviews as concertmaster and soloist for the Orchestra of the Cathedral of the Madeline in Salt Lake City. In recent years Mr. Belknap has performed as a guest artist at the George Enescu International Violin Competition, the Barge Music Series in NYC, and served as concertmaster of the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.

The concert on the 12th, billed as the final Salon Concert of the Festival’s 34th Summer Season, will be held at the Park City Community Church. The concert, billed as the final Salon Concert of the Festival’s 34th Summer Season, will be held at the Park City Community Church and will begin at 6:30pm. The Festival Salon concerts are fundraisers for the Beethoven Festival Young Artist Institute and a minimum donation of $35 serves as the ticket to attend this favorite Festival event. Attendees are invited to add to their donations during the evening. Tickets are available online in advance and any remaining seats will be available at the door at the concert. Seating is limited.

About the Festival’s popular Salon concerts: Attendees start with a visit to the dinner buffet, then enjoy the first set of performances. Desserts are the fare for the second course of the buffet, then the artists will present their second set of performances.

This will be the second Festival Salon concert to introduce a new artist to the Festival roster – Tchaikovsky Competition medalist and acclaimed violinist Stephanie Chase, made her Festival debut performing alongside fellow Festival violinists Monte Belknap, Donna Fairbanks and Simon Gollo as soloists in Vivaldi’s Four Violin Concerto accompanied by Festival faculty and student performers. Ms. Chase was also featured in the Festival’s Gala Salon Concert, as well as performing in four additional Festival performances over her 10-day tenure at the Beethoven Festival this summer. St. Louis Symphony Principal Bassist Erik Harris also joined the Beethoven Festival this summer as performer and bass instructor at the Institute.StephenBeusDramaticBWExc MonteBelknapBWExc

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