{"id":3349,"date":"2014-11-24T19:10:35","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T00:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2014\/11\/24\/parsons-releases-solo-recording-of-liszts-works\/"},"modified":"2024-07-24T09:41:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T13:41:19","slug":"parsons-releases-solo-recording-of-liszts-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/parsons-releases-solo-recording-of-liszts-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Parsons releases solo recording of Liszt’s works"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Derek<\/a><\/p>\n

Furman professor of piano Derek Parsons has always found inspiration in the otherworldly talent of Franz Liszt, but he\u2019s never been quite ready to take on the challenge of recording music composed by someone considered by many to be the greatest pianist of all time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Until now.<\/p>\n

The South Carolina Arts Commission<\/a> earlier this month awarded Parsons a $3,000 grant to fund the production of a CD of selected Liszt works, which he hopes to have ready for release before the calendar turns to 2015. A critically acclaimed pianist in his own right, Parsons has released several recordings on the Equilibrium label<\/a> with saxophonist Clifford Leaman as a member of The Ambassador Duo<\/a>, but this will be his first as a solo artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve waited a long time for this because I wanted to do something that I felt very strongly about, and I\u2019ve lived with these pieces for a very long time. I\u2019ve played them out and I\u2019ve really kind of enjoyed the process of getting to know them,\u201d Parsons said. \u201cI just decided it\u2019s probably time for me to put something down. I finally feel confident about doing something that\u2019s a solo thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liszt<\/a> wrote set pieces based on his travels in Italy during the 1830s, Parsons said, followed by another set later in life. That music ultimately led to this project.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver my time (at Furman), I\u2019ve had three sabbaticals, and they\u2019ve all been dedicated to the music of Liszt in some way. And then, in 2008, during the fall term I got to be involved with the foreign-study program that the music department offers with Italy,\u201d he said. \u201cThe combination of my interest in Liszt kind of got me thinking about doing a CD of works by Liszt that were inspired by Italy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parsons began recording in the Daniel Recital Hall<\/a> early in the summer and received some funding from the Furman Research and Professional Growth (RPG) Committee, but without the SCAC grant he would have been hard-pressed to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a performing artist, that\u2019s our research so to speak,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce that got accepted it got the ball rolling. Right now I\u2019m in the middle of editing, which is a grueling kind of thing. But we\u2019re making our way through it, and I\u2019m hoping to have something by the end of December.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing to be a serious performer only helps Parsons in the classroom as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI become credible as a teacher when the students see me struggling in the same ways that they do and working through problems and putting that product out on stage, or in this case a disk,\u201d he said. \u201cIt certainly makes it a more valid thing when I\u2019m asking them to do certain things in terms of professionally. For myself, it\u2019s my ongoing research. You\u2019re never finished with this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Furman professor of piano Derek Parsons has always found inspiration in the otherworldly talent of Franz Liszt, but he\u2019s never been quite ready to take on the challenge of recording […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":14113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,26,39,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-administrative","category-music","category-study-away-and-international-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33245,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3349\/revisions\/33245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}