The Richard F. Burkhardt Fine and Performing Arts Series will present pianist Philip M. Powell as the guest artist for the 44th Dr. Sharyn Edwards Piano Festival and Competition. Powell’s concert opens the festival on Friday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Southeastern Community College.
Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors. SCC students attend free with ID.
Powell is a professor of music and has been a faculty member at Coastal Carolina University since 1988, teaching piano and piano pedagogy. Since moving to South Carolina, Powell has maintained an active performing schedule with concerts frequently heard on South Carolina Public Radio. Locally, Powell has performed with the South Carolina Symphony Orchestra and the Jupiter Symphony and has performed many times as a soloist with the Long Bay Symphony, playing concerto repertoire ranging from Mozart to Gershwin.
He has served as president of the Coastal Concert Association, music director of the Festival of Music, and Art at Pawley’s Island, founding director of the Musicale de Geneve series and a member of the board of directors of the Litchfield Dance Arts Academy and of the Long Bay Symphony. Powell holds a BMA from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied with Todd Welbourne and Edward Gates. He also attended the Aspen Summer Music Festival as a student of the late Edith Oppens. Powell holds a master of music from Indiana University, where he was a student of both the late Karen Shaw and Shegio Neriki, and a doctorate of music also from Indiana University, where he was a student of the late Michael Block.
