Michael Banwarth

The Fort Dodge Area Symphony will perform at 3 p.m. today at the Fort Dodge Middle School, 800 N. 32nd St.

Tickets are by season membership or $10 for adults. Students are admitted free.

The concert will begin with “Toward a New Life” by Joseph Suk. This was written for the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California.

Michael Banwarth will perform Robert Schumann’s “Piano Concerto in A Minor.” Banwarth was one of the Young Artists scheduled to perform at the April 2018 concert that was canceled. He is a junior at Iowa State University, studying piano performance with Dr. Mei-Hsuan Huang. He began piano lessons at age 6, and has relished the ability of music to help him communicate and convey emotion ever since. He is heavily involved in chamber music and accompanies for several Iowa State choral ensembles, with concert engagements in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Norway. He recently appeared with the Iowa State Symphony Orchestra and Dubuque Symphony Orchestra. He intends to pursue a career in collaborative piano and vocal coaching. Banwarth is honored to appear with the Fort Dodge Area Symphony on the opening concert of this season, and cannot wait to share Robert Schumann’s only piano concerto, a personal favorite, with you.

Next will be Olivia Kieffer’s “… and then the Universe exploded” and the concert will conclude with four dance episodes from Aaron Copland’s ballet “Rodeo.”