The Friends of the Carmel Valley Library will present Bradley Pettit, pianist and harpsichordist, on Tuesday, July 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the Carmel Valley Library (3919 Townsgate Drive, Carmel Valley).
This unique program invites audiences to experience the French Baroque tradition as its composers heard it. Pettit will perform on a Ruckers-style harpsichord built in 1987 by the late San Diego builder Ronald Haas, bringing an authenticity and intimacy to masterworks by Johann Sebastian Bach and François Couperin, a news release states.
The program opens with Bach’s French Suite No. 5 in G Major, followed by Couperin’s elegant Concerts Royaux, before Pettit moves to the modern piano for Maurice Ravel’s luminous Le tombeau de Couperin — a dance suite composed over 200 years after the Baroque era that inspired it, and a deeply personal homage to the tradition the audience will have just heard.
A San Diego State University graduate in piano performance, Pettit maintains an active and diverse career in the region as a collaborative pianist, choir accompanist, church organist, opera rehearsal pianist, and orchestral keyboardist, with credits including the San Diego Symphony. He will soon return to graduate studies at the USC Thornton School of Music, pursuing a master’s degree in Keyboard Collaborative Arts.
This one-hour concert is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6 p.m. Parking is limited; early arrival is encouraged. Donations are gratefully accepted to support future cultural events.