By Joan C. McKinney, director, Office of University Communications
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Dr. Stephen Wilber, who taught at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., for nine years, will give a guest piano recital at Campbellsville University Thursday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. in The Gheens Recital Hall, 210 University Drive, Campbellsville, Ky.
He will be performing works by Haydn, Schubert, Chopin, and Liszt.
Wilber will also be giving a piano masterclass for our piano students on Friday, Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. until noon in The Gheens Recital Hall. Everyone is invited to his program and the masterclass.
Wilber was awarded Third prize nationally in the solo professional division of the “American Prize” in Piano Performance Competition for 2013. His playing has been hailed for its “freshness and refinement” and for his “force, imagination, feelings, and lyricism” (Arad, Romania).
In 1999, Dr. Wilber made his orchestral debut with members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 26 in D major.
Wilber has not been involved in the world of high-powered piano competitions. Alicia De Larrocha as well as other concert pianists have told him he has a very personal and expressive style and to continue performing which would lead to more exposure as pianists did in the times before the modern competition era.
Some highlights of Dr. Wilber's solo and concerto engagements have been: The Festival Orchestra of Zurich, Switzerland; The Great Hall, Saratov Russia; The Cultural Palace, Arad Romania; Merkin Hall, NYC; The Estonia Concert Hall and the Tallinn Conservatory of Music, Tallinn, Estonia; The Academy of Art and Music, Honolulu Hawaii; Oberlin College Guest Recital Series; Le Kuklos, Leysin Switzerland; Crans-Montana, Switzerland. He has been a guest artist in the Music Festival of the Hamptons, NY, Gina Bachauer Foundation in Salt Lake City, Music at Grey Towers, Pa., Shandelee Music Festival in New York City, The American Liszt Society in Washington DC, Celebrate the Arts in Atlanta and the Festival of Nations in Rome Italy.
A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Wilber also studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He holds a master's degree from The Peabody Institute and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Maryland.
Wilber lives in the Atlanta area with his wife Mary-Frances, who is a soprano, and four children.
Campbellsville University is a widely-acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 10,000 students offering more than 90 programs of study including Ph.D., master, baccalaureate, associate, pre-professional and certification programs. The university has off-campus centers in Kentucky cities Louisville, Harrodsburg, Somerset, Hodgenville and Liberty with Kentucky instructional sites in Elizabethtown, Owensboro and Summersville, and nationally in Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay, Jacksonville, Fla. and Chicago. The university also has a full complement of online programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.