Village Lights Bookstore, along with The Madison Cultural Continuum, is pleased to invite you to a very special, intimate evening of fine music.

Please see details below, and we hope you'll join us!

Classical Piano Concert - Sakaguchi Benjamin Akeala Belew

Sunday, June 6th, 7:30 pm
Village Lights Bookstore
110 East Main Street, Madison, IN

Admission: $10
Ticketed event. Limited seating.
Beverages and hors d'oeuves provided.

Tickets available at:
Village Lights Bookstore
Crawdaddy Music
Galatea's Art Supplies
605 Grille

Information:
812.265.1800

Program:
Works by Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Ponchielli, Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Beethoven, and Belew

Artist profile:

Born in 1982 to an American father and a Japanese mother, Sakaguchi Benjamin (Ben) Akeala Belew was trained in Japan and America as a classical pianist and composer. His teachers included Shinji Kosugi (Japan), Frieda Manes (New York), Dr. Andrew Parr (Stephen H. Austin University, Texas), and Yoshihiko Endo (Japan). Ben has lived in both Japan and America and is completely bi-lingual and bi-cultural. He was a member of the Wind Ensemble at Clarence Senior High School in Clarence, New York, where the repertoire ranged from concert band pieces to classical works arranged for wind ensemble. As a senior he performed the solo piano part in George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at the Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, New York. Winning the State Competition in 2003 in Niigata, Japan earned Ben significant recognition in Japan and numerous performance opportunities. He has collaborated with singers and other instrumentalists, sharing a repertoire of both classical and pop/modern music. This has provided him exposure to diverse musical styles, enabling him to combine a variety of genres with his classical foundation in creating his own works. Ben's compositions include a work commissioned by his former teacher, pianist Yoshihiko Endo - Fantasy for Cello and Piano on the Japanese Theme Sado Okesa, a piece for cello and piano built around a traditional Japanese melody as the main theme. The composition was very well received as part of a program toured by Mr. Endo and a German concert cellist. Ben Belew's greatest musical influences are The Three B's, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, and Ludwig Van Beethoven, Beethoven being his favorite.