Noted pianist Trefor Smith will present a recital and master class at Westminster on October 6 and 7. Presented as part of the piano department’s Visiting Artist Series, Smith will present a recital on Saturday, October 6 at 7 p.m. in Bristol Chapel. He will perform works by Schubert, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt. On Sunday, October 7, at 4:30 p.m., he will conduct a master class with Westminster piano students in Williamson Hall.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, of half-Scots, half-Welsh heritage, Smith studied music and composition at Aberdeen and Liverpool Universities and piano with George Hadjinikos at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where he received his Performer’s Diploma. He continued his piano studies with Eliza Hansen at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg.

Smith has performed in almost all of the Western European countries, as well as in Poland, Russia, India, Turkey, and for several years he has performed regularly throughout the United States. His performances have been regularly broadcast on radio, and he has recorded several CDs. He is currently professor of piano at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg.

A reviewer in Germany’s Die Welt newspaper wrote of one of his performances: “It is obvious that Trefor Smith is in real touch with his audience. His ten fingers fully serve the spirit, which he liberates from the notes. This spirit is not only faithful to the score, as one would expect, but is born of a kind of fusion of his own perception with that of the composition and its creator.”

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