Paul Sánchez, newly appointed director of piano studies at the College of Charleston, was plunking on his mother’s piano when he was 2 and reading music by the time he was 4.
Paul Sánchez
The classically trained pianist and artistic director of the College’s International Piano Series will make his Charleston debut on Sept. 20, 2016, to kickoff of the series’ 2016-17 season.
Sánchez says he didn’t know much about Charleston when he applied for the position, but he was attracted by the combination of conservatory-level training and a liberal arts education. “That really sounded fascinating to me,” he says. “I went to a liberal arts college and I think liberal arts are training for life. It makes our world richer, it makes us more aware of of other fields that may or may not be closely related to what we do, but we’re getting really, really high level training.”
He interviewed in February and relocated to Charleston in March. Previously, Sánchez served on the faculty at Baylor University’s School of Music and at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. He is a frequent adjudicator in piano competitions throughout the United States. In 2006, he co-founded the Dakota Sky International Piano Festival, which has since served thousands of listeners and students. He is the only American concert pianist to have earned a Master of Spanish Music degree under the legendary Spanish pianist Alicia de Laryocha, which he accomplished while studying as a Fulbright Fellow in Spain from 2005 to 2007.
He was surrounded by music at a very early age. He remembers his parents listening to jazz and classical records and bringing him to concerts. At the age of 4, he expressed interest in learning piano (he could read music before he could read words), and he took off from there, practicing three hours each day and eventually studying under piano great Tamás Ungár at Texas Christian University.
Sánchez’s Charleston debut will feature a program of Kinderszenen, Op. 15 by Robert Schumann; Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36 (1931) by Sergei Rachmaninov; Cants Mágics (1917) Federico Mompou; and Ballade No. 2 in B minor, S. 171 by Franz Liszt. The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2016, in Sottile Theatre, 44 George St. General admission is $20 and free for all College of Charleston students and employees. Tickets and season subscriptions can be purchased online at go.cofc.edu/ips, at the door, or by calling (843) 953-6315.
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