In an encore performance of his piano concert on June 29, pianist Benjamin Nacar performs a program featuring selections from Dvorak’s Symphony no. 9 From the New World (arr: Nacar) and John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever (arr: Horowitz).
About Benjamin Nacar: Ben is a native of the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island, now living just outside of the city. Originally homeschooled through high school, he graduated from Brown University in May 2012 having completed a double concentration in Computer Science and Classics, and he has since been spending most of my time on freelance performing, recording and composing projects.
He has given several solo recitals at the RISD Museum and at the Laurelmead Cooperative retirement community in Providence, at the William Hall Library in Cranston, and, sponsored by the Cogut Center for the Humanities, at Brown’s Pembroke Hall, the Cogut headquarters. All of Nacar’s concerts have featured his favorite works by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, and Bizet-Horowitz, and on occasion my own compositions and arrangements. In the fall of 2010 he performed one twenty-minute segment of Community MusicWorks’ weekend-long Bach Marathon. His senior recitals he performed at the Cogut Center (April and May 2012), the program both times consisting of Liszt’s B minor Sonata and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony transcribed by Liszt.
In the spring of 2013, Nacar composed and recorded the soundtrack for his friend Michael Rose’s thirty-minute comedy film, which can be found on Nacar’s website. He is currently looking for further work in film composing.
Aside from music, computers and classics, Nacar’s interests and hobbies include history, railroads (full-size and miniature), cartooning, and roleplaying games. He has been known to turn up at contradances.
Featured image from RISD Museum of Art.
