Shelter Island Friends of Music: Piano virtuoso with local ties comes to the Island

The familiar theme of “local boy makes good” is coming to the Shelter Island Friends of Music 2018 series. On Saturday, April 21, at 8 p.m. the greatly admired, 24-year-old American pianist Drew Petersen, who has long-standing ties to the East End as a summer resident of East Hampton, will return to the Island for his third appearance with the Friends of Music. Admission is free.

Many in our faithful audience will recall their amazement at Mr. Petersen’s Island performance when he was just 12 years old. He was invited back when he was 16 and on the cusp of a Harvard education, where he graduated cum laude at 19.

Since then, it’s been one brilliant achievement after another: a master’s degree from Juilliard, a prize-winning performance at the prestigious Leeds Competition, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the ultimate accolade, the 2017 American Pianists Award.

Mr. Petersen’s planned program is beguiling, since it includes some Chopin and Beethoven as well as several impossibly difficult piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt. Please join us on April 21 at 8 p.m. in the sanctuary of the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church and stay on for the wine and goodies immediately following.