WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., Nov. 14, 2022 —West Liberty University welcomes Dr. Harsha Abeyaratne to campus this Sunday as a guest performer. Abeyaratne is a pianist and professor at Muskingum College.
The concert takes place at 4 p.m., Nov. 20 in College Hall and is free and open to the public.
Dr. Abeyaratne, who recently performed in Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), will present an exciting and colorful program of piano masterworks by Liszt, Beethoven, Debussy, Granados, and Chopin,” said Dr. Gerald Lee, WLU professor of piano and a full-time faculty member since 2002.
With such reviews as “poetic” and “passionate,” Sri Lankan-American pianist Harsha Abeyaratne leads an active career as a teacher, solo pianist, and collaborative pianist.
Currently an associate professor of music at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio, he has given performances at such venues as St. Martin’s in the Fields in London, England; Baha’i Worship Center in Chicago; Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Blue Lake, Michigan; Gansu Grand Theater in Lanzhou, China; Graves Recital Hall in Columbus, Ohio; Lionel Wendt Theater in Colombo, Sri Lanka; Interharmony International Festival in Arcidosso, Italy; and Carnegie Hall, once in December of 2012 and another in October of this year.
On sabbatical leave this semester, his work involves a recording session with recording-engineer Steve Bodner and recitals at Graves Recital Hall in Columbus, Carnegie Hall in New York, Texas A&M University at Commerce, and West Liberty University.
In addition, he is a recipient of the 2010 Ball State University School of Music Alumni Achievement Citation Award and several faculty grant awards from Muskingum, which have enabled him to perform in New York, China, and Italy. He has two undergraduate degrees from Lewis and Clark College and both master’s and doctoral degrees in music from Ball State University where he studied, respectively, with the late Ann Miller and Robert Palmer.
WLU’s Department of Music and Theater is housed within the College of Liberal and Creative Arts. It offers the Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance degree, the Bachelor of Arts in Music Education degree and the Bachelor of Music Technology degree programs. Students also may choose to minor in music. For complete information, please contact the music department at 304-336-8061.