McPHERSON, KAN. – Renowned classical pianist, Ketevan Badridze, will open the 2017 Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series on October 29 with a recital in Brown Auditorium at 4 p.m. at McPherson College. A reception to meet the artist will be held immediately after the recital.
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Badrize, has been performing since the age of 10. As a solo artist and chamber performer, she has taken the stage in the United States, Georgia, France, Austria, Holland, Italy, and Germany performing with Tbilisi National Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, and South Bend Symphony Orchestra. Her collaborations include performances with Lisa Batiashvili, Alexander Korsantia, Gregory Fulkerson as well as Euclid and Georgian National Quartets.
She is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions such as Newport International Piano Competition – UK, The World International Piano Competition – Cincinnati, New Orleans International Piano Competition, and the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition.
She earned a master of music degree in piano performance from Tbilisi State Conservatory and moved to the United States in 2000 to study with Professor Alexander Toradze. She has appeared with renowned Toradze Piano Studio at numerous music venues around Europe and the United States, including Columbia University in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Academia of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Settimane Musicali di Stresa e del Lago Maggiore and Ravena Festival in Italy, Ruhr Keyboard Festival in Germany, and the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival as part of “World Rising Stars” series broadcast on the National Public Radio (NPR). Since 2005, she has been a senior lecturer of music at Indiana University South Bend.
The Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series was established in 2016 thanks to a generous commitment to McPherson College honoring Lingenfelter. Her son, Steve Clark, chairman of Clark Investment Group in Wichita, established the fund that supports the two annual music performance events, with special emphasis on piano. Lingenfelter, an alumna of McPherson College, taught piano in McPherson for many years to both college students on campus and younger students at her studio downtown.
Although Lingenfelter passed away in 1962, her son continues to see a long-lasting influence from her lifetime of work. The fund is his way of saying thank you and to support the music and the instrument she loved.
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