Damon Denton’s piano performance will kick off 2018’s Faculty Recital Series

The UGA Faculty Recital Series will kick off the new year with an evening of music from around the globe performed by pianist Damon Denton. Denton has been on the Hugh Hodgson School of Music Piano faculty as a resident accompanist since 2010. This concert will take place on Tuesday, February 6th at 8 p.m. in Ramsey Concert Hall.

The audience should expect a program filled with variety, according to Denton. “I try to visit several countries in a single hour without overstaying my welcome in any one of those places,” he says. This program will visit Italy, Germany, Spain, France, South America, and Russia with compositions by Scarlatti, Mompou, Beethoven, Ginastera, Poulenc, and Prokofiev.

Denton is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and went on to receive a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School studying with Russian virtuoso pianist, Oxana Yablonskaya.

 “I had a variety of artists work with me in my career, but I am dominantly influenced by the Russian school having worked with Oxana Yablonskaya at Juilliard. We both had a leaning to program dynamic works that were evocative and compelling,” says Denton. Denton was one of the top prize winners at the Fourth International Piano Competition held in Pretoria, South Africa. He has performed solo, concerto and collaborative concerts in England, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa, France, Germany, and throughout the United States.

While his upcoming UGA recital program may be internationally-affiliated, Denton is also locally known as the keyboardist for Athens super group Pylon Reenactment Society (PRS), fronted by Pylon’s original singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay. The Pylon Reenactment Society have recently released a 6 song EP of a live Los Angeles radio recording session that is receiving international reviews. Denton’s performance has been noted as “dynamic and ethereal” by reviewers which include Blurt and Paste Magazine. PRS frequently perform locally and throughout the USA, headlining festivals such as The Barely Human Festival in Detroit to performing in the upcoming Savannah Stopover Festival in Savannah, Georgia.

Denton’s recital is not one to be missed. From an eclectic classical and modern pop rock background, Denton brings much to his performances. His take on the classics of his program will leave you wanting more, as The Santa Barbara Press quoted: “He left his listeners clamoring for more; BRILLIANT” (The Arlington Theater).

Tickets for the concert are $12 for adults and $6 for students, and can be purchased online at pac.uga.edu or in person at the Performing Arts Center box office, located at 230 River Road next to the School of Music. 

UGA’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music sponsors over 350 performances a year. For more information, you can visit music.uga.edu. For more up to date information about concerts and other events at the School of Music, please subscribe to the weekly email announcements (the link is at music.uga.edu). Those unable to make it to the concert can watch the live stream at music.uga.edu/streaming.