Piano Recital with Mark Valenti

Piano Recital

Sunday, November 9th, 2025, at 3:00 pm

St. John Cantius Church in the Parish Hall.

Accomplished pianist, Mark Valenti will be at St. John Cantius for a delightful program of masterworks by Debussy, Bach, Ives, and Mendelssohn.

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Program Notes

It is easy to forget that Claude Debussy titled each prelude after its completion for the music seems so inspired by its title. Scintillating fountains and cascades can be heard in this muscial rendering of Ondine, a mythological water nymph while sprightly, fleeting figures and twinkling trills fill the atmosphere in Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses (Fairies are exquisite dancers). Finally, suggestions of cowbells, shepherd's flute, and folk songs are among the italianità heard in Les collines d'Anacapri (The hills of Anacapri). The ever popular Italian Concerto of J. S. Bach was originally written for harpsichord with two manuals (keyboards) and embodies the rhythmic exuberance and melodic inventiveness that define Bach as one of the greatest masters of music. The first and third movement display Bach’s penchant for ritornello style where the main theme is stated and subsequently returns repeatedly, often in fragments. The second movement is a florid arioso - a song-like movement utilizing speech-like patterns. In Song without (good) words), Charles Ives displays his penchant for lyricism and modernism (as well as a little sarcasm) with a beautiful melody being sometimes harmonized with ‘wrong notes’. In The Alcotts, hymn-like and folk-like songs can be heard amidst modern discord as Ives, hailing from New England, portrays the local family of Bronson Alcott with "the memory of that home under the elms...where Beth played the old Scotch airs and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.” During the composition of Variations Sérieuses Felix Mendelssohn remarked to a friend, "I've never enjoyed myself so much". Nonetheless, these variations are without a doubt "serious". A theme, full of yearning pathos, and 18 variations, each one a miniature study in virtuoso romantic piano techniques, comprise the set.

-M.V.

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Mark's Biography

Mark Valenti received his Master of Music from Northwestern University, Bachelor of Music from the Philadelphia Musical Academy and has studied with such notable teachers as Benjamin Whitten, Zoltan Kocsis and Mary Sauer. In addition to giving solo recitals in cities throughout the U.S., Mr. Valenti has performed in France, Belgium, Hungary and Luxembourg as well as for former First Lady Barbara Bush in Washington, D.C. Mark Valenti has performed in recital live on WFMT classical radio. He has also done extensive work in the Jazz field including performances with Gregory Hines, Frank Foster and Al Grey and has appeared on television with Joe Sudler's Swing Machine and singer/actor Christopher Durham. Formerly Professor of Music at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Xavier University in Chicago and the Loire Valley Music Institute in France, Mr. Valenti currently teaches at his studio in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago and is available for lessons for all levels and all styles.