Renowned South American Pianist to Perform

Argentine-Venezuelan pianist Sergio Daniel Tiempo, widely regarded as one of the outstanding pianists of his generation, will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18 in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall at the University of Arkansas. The concert is free and the public is welcome. There will be a reception following the performance.

Tiempo rose quickly to international prominence after making his debut at age 14 on the "Great Pianists" series at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 1986. He now appears regularly in recitals and with orchestras in the leading halls of Europe, North America, South America and Japan.

He will perform a program including works by Haydn, Beethoven, Listz , Ginastera, as well as a dozen Etudes by Chopin.

Sergio Tiempo was born in Caracas in 1972, and began his piano studies with his mother, Lyl Tiempo, at the age of two years and eight months. He made his first public appearance just a few months later, at the age of three, appeared on Argentine television of the age of four, and gave recitals In London and at the Menton Festival in France at age seven. In addition to being taught by his mother, he received lessons in London from Tessa Nicholson and Maria Curcio, in Paris from Pierre Sancan and Michel Beroff, and in Belgium from Jacques Detiege and Alan Weiss.

His awards include the 1986 Alex De Vries Prize of Belgium and four first prizes at the 1980 Ealing Music Festival in London, where, at age eight, he was honored with a special prize as the most talented participant in the competition, and the Davidoff 2000 Prize in Germany.

Sergio Tiempo has made several records for the JVC Victor label, beginning with a live recording of his 1986 Concertgebouw recital. This disc immediately garnered worldwide acclaim. Since then he has recorded a recital of Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin works and three full Chopin recordings. He has also made two recordings of duo-piano works with his sister, Karin Lechner. His most recent recording is a complete Mendelssohn CD which he made with cellist Mischa Maisky for Deutsche Grammophon.