Westminster Conservatory at Nassau presents Happy Birthday, Johann Sebastian!

Theodore Hendricks-Verdejo, pianist

The program on March 19, performed by Conservatory faculty pianist Theodore Hendricks-Verdejo comprises the arrangement by Wilhelm Kempff of the Siciliano from the flute sonata in G Minor, the Partita No. 1 in B-flat, and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903.

A native of Trenton, NJ, Theodore Hendricks-Verdejo pursued his early piano studies with Josephine Hence. He later enrolled at Escuela Libre de Musica in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, where he studied with Isabelita Carrasquillo, Rosita Casanova, and Alicia Villar Sicardo. Following graduation from Escuela Libre de Musica, he attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. At Peabody he earned bachelor and master of music degrees in piano performance as a pupil of Prof. Ellen Mack. While at Peabody he was also a winner of the concerto competition. Mr. Hendricks-Verdejo undertook post-graduate studies at Temple University with world-renowned pianist Natalie Hinderas. He has also studied with harpsichordist Temple Painter in Philadelphia and pianist German Diez in New York. Mr. Hendricks-Verdejo has lectured on the piano etudes of Moritz Moszkowski and on music of Black composers.

Theodore Hendricks-Verdejo has performed in the continental USA, the Caribbean, and Japan, both in live performances and in radio and television broadcasts. In March of 2015 he presented J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Westminster Choir College in Princeton. He also performed the work in San Juan in 2018. Preceding his performance Mr. Hendricks-Verdejo offered a master class for Conservatory pianists, covering a wide range of repertoire. As part of Westminster Conservatory’s Beethoven Sonata project in commemoration of the composer’s 250th birthday, he performed Beethoven’s "Hammerklavier" Sonata in December of 2020. More recently Mr. Hendricks-Verdejo performed a piano recital at the Conservatorio de Música in San Juan, PR, in celebration of his seventh decade.

Formerly Mr. Hendricks was a music teacher in the Westfield, NJ School District. He currently teaches piano at Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, New Jersey.

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Westminster Conservatory is the community music school of Rider University. This program is made possible in part by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.