CANYON, Texas — An acclaimed soloist and chamber musician will open the 2024 Grace Hamilton Piano Festival at West Texas A&M University.
Jennifer Hayghe, chair of the Roser Keyboard and Piano Area at the University of Colorado–Boulder, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 in Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall on WT’s Canyon campus.
Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for non-WT students and free for festival participants and WT students, faculty and staff with a Buff Gold Card.
Hayghe was the last student of Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School, where she won the William Petschek Debut Award, resulting in her New York City recital debut at Alice Tully Hall.
Hayghe has performed and taught as a soloist and chamber musician at universities and colleges throughout the country as well as appearing as a concerto soloist with various orchestras throughout the United States. She has performed in major chamber music series, including Bargemusic in New York and the Garth Newel Center for Music series in Virginia, and has taught chamber music throughout the United States and Central America.
The festival, which dates back around 60 years, was named in 2016 in honor of Grace Hamilton, an influential area piano instructor who cofounded the Amarillo Symphony and was its first pianist.
Nearly 100 students from around the Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico perform throughout the day Feb. 24, concluding with an honors recital at 3 p.m. in the recital hall inside the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex.
The festival also will include a piano teachers’ workshop Feb. 23, featuring Hayghe and festival co-directors Dr. Choong-ha Nam, professor of piano, and Dr. Sarah Rushing, assistant professor of piano.
To register for the workshop, click here. To purchase tickets, visit wtamu.edu/music or call 806-651-2840.
Fostering an appreciation of the arts and meeting regional needs are key goals of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised more than $150 million.
