CHESTERTOWN, MD — The Washington College 12@Hotchkiss series will welcome composer, keyboardist and conductor Raphael Fusco Friday for a free lunchtime concert April 4. In a performance that begins at noon in Hotchkiss Recital Hall, Gibson Center for the Arts, Fusco will showcase harpsichord works he composed during a residency at the Piccola Accademia di Montisi in Tuscany, Italy.

With a catalogue of more than 80 vocal, chamber and orchestral compositions, Fusco is considered one of the world’s top emerging composers, in demand in both the United States and Europe. In 2012, his original composition for choir and orchestra titled Divis Cetera: An Ode from Mount Soracte premiered in the Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, New York, widely regarded as the most prestigious concert stage in the U.S. He is currently working on a recording of his compositions for baroque instruments with Duo Caminiti-Arnone and baroque violinist Julia Schröder; an opera on the Sumerian creation myth, Atrahasis; and a recording of free improvisations for two pianos with Kurt Thum. 

Raphael Fusco began his piano studies at age 8 and began composing at 10. He holds degrees from Mannes College of Music and G. Verdi Conservatorio of Turin, having also studied at the Paris Schola Cantorum and Vienna Konservatorium. 

Co-sponsored by the Washington College Department of Music and the Washington College Concert Series, 12@Hotchkiss features free midday performances on the first Friday of each month.

–George Gabriel 14