This Friday (2/21) at 3:30pm in the Smith Ryan Concert Hall, the Humanities Forum, in collaboration with the Music Department, is hosting Paul-André Bempechat, concert pianist, scholar, and music teacher at Harvard University.
A lecture and performance on Jean Cras, French admiral, composer, and polymath. A very pious Catholic, his position as a career naval officer was threatened after the separation of Church and State in 1905, and his ability to navigate the politics and to uphold his spiritual convictions makes for interesting reflection on human nature and professionalism.
Paul-André Bempéchat is an award-winning concert pianist and scholar. Decorated as Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, and as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academic Chapel at Uppsala University, M. Bempéchat has toured in virtually every country in Europe, and most recently was the Artist-in-Residence at Sweden’s Uppsala University in 2023. Colleagues and critics alike have hailed him as a singularly lucid, introspective interpreter capable of drawing audiences into a near-palpable relationship with the select composers he performs.
