AU professor, pianist to perform concert Thursday

Submitted by Aurora University

Aurora University assistant professor of music and pianist Cristian Pastorello will perform works by Chopin, Mozart and John Corigliano at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in Crimi Auditorium, 407 S. Calumet Ave.

Pastorello, who joined the AU faculty this fall, will perform in the inaugural Third Thursday concert series sponsored by the university’s Music Department. The public is invited. Admission is free.

The program includes “Sonata in B Flat Major K 570,” by Mozart; “Étude Fantasy,” by Corigliano; and “Étude Op 25 No. 7” and “Sonata in B flat Minor Op. 35” by Chopin.

Pastorello has appeared as a soloist and a chamber musician in Italy, Russia, Argentina and the U.S. He has received numerous awards and performed in leading venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Moscow Conservatory’s Rachmaninoff Hall, Alberdi Theatre in S. Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina and Steinway Hall in New York City.

Pastorello began his piano studies at the age of seven in Italy under the tutelage of his father. He continued his musical studies at The Conservatory of Padua where he earned a Diploma in Piano Performance and later obtained a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from The Boston Conservatory under the guidance of pianist Jonathan Bass.

Pastorello completed a D.M.A. degree in Piano Performance, with a minor in Music Theory, as a student of Professor Neal Larrabee at the University of Connecticut where he was a teaching assistant in Collaborative Piano. At The University of Connecticut he received the Evelyn Bonar Storrs Scholarship, a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Award, and The University of Connecticut Student Award.

Before joining Aurora University, Pastorello taught at The University of Connecticut, The University of New Haven and at Eastern Connecticut State University.