Pianist

NEWPORT BEACH — Natalie Cernius took a liking to the piano even before she was big enough to reach the keys. As a toddler, she enjoyed crawling under the instrument during her older siblings' lessons. The notes from those sessions resonated in the toddler's ears and throughout their Dover Shores home. It was Natalie's early beginnings playfully scrambling between the piano legs and hearing those notes that likely helped give the 14-year-old the perfect pitch she has today.

Deepa Bharath Internationally renowned pianist Andre Watts was rushed into emergency surgery Thursday night after he became ill minutes before performing at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Watts, 56, was getting ready to play Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, a piece that had held the audience in thrall Wednesday night, said Christopher Trela, spokesman for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Watts was scheduled for three performances with the symphony -- on Wednesday, Thursday and today.

If you made a New Year’s resolution to listen to more classical music, you’ll have a perfect opportunity tonight, when the Pacific Symphony debuts an Eastern European-themed program at Segerstrom Hall. Guests artists include conductor Carlos Kalmar and pianist Freddy Kempf. Born to two Austrians in Uruguay, Kalmar has performed around the world. He is the music director of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra and the principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago.

Playing with Frank Sinatra at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for three weeks in 1946 is one of the highlights of famed pianist and band leader Page Cavanaugh's career, and there are many more. His band also played for the likes of Doris Day, Mel Torme and Tony Bennett long before Cavanaugh became a staple at the Balboa Bay Club and Resort's entertainment lounge Duke's Place, where he has performed live jazz every Thursday evening for 10 years. Tonight, the public is invited to celebrate Cavanaugh's career and his 85th birthday with cake and champagne, and of course, live entertainment from the Page Cavanaugh Trio.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang, whom many critics have praised as the most famous pianist in the world today, rose to star status playing some of the most difficult repertoire ever written with lightning-quick flourishes up and down the keyboard, crashing chords and flamboyant undulations of his body and arms. The atmosphere around Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, where Lang Lang gave the opening night performance Wednesday, seemed to fit that persona. A blue velvet carpet was rolled out for all of the celebrities in attendance, performers in dragon costumes paraded around the courtyard and a flashy, attention-grabbing statue debuted in the middle of the hall.

Artists performing at New York City’s signature music venue, Carnegie Hall, will travel to the West Coast to play at the Orange County Performing Arts Center as part of a new partnership announced Wednesday. The first season of the partnership will bring a series of accomplished Chinese musicians to the center including Lang Lang — perhaps the most famous pianist in the world, who has played at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Hall before — and Grammy-winning composer-conductor Tan Dun, who wrote the score for the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Christine Carrillo Two pianists sit at a 1920s midsize Steinway and try to meld their individual sounds into one. They calculate every movement of their fingers with surgical precision while one of them orchestrates the pedals, so as to not step on the other's toes. These are the complexities of a piano duet, which M'lou Dietzer, who frequently performs as a soloist and chamber musician, and Pennie Foster, who is an accompanist for the Saddleback Master Chorale and an organist-pianist for a Laguna Beach church, have mastered.

Young Chang Eva Xia hesitantly admits she listens to hip-hop music and that her favorite rapper is Tupac. She seems embarrassed for some reason but when asked, says she isn't. The 17-year-old also loves Martha Argerich, a renowned Argentine pianist who Eva calls "absolutely awesome." Her music is subdued but has so much meaning, technique and depth. "She's like one of the most formidable women pianists," Eva said, sounding out "formidable" because it's not a word teenagers use everyday.

The romance-filled piano playing of Jim Brickman will fill the sound waves of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall next week. The 8 p.m. concerts May 12 to 14 at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts will have a second half that features the famed pianist. The first half will just be pops conductor Richard Kaufman leading the Pacific Symphony. The Costa Mesa-based orchestra and its longtime pops leader have a varied program that includes some film music classics like Henry Mancini's "Pennywhistle Jig" from the 1970 film "The Molly Macguires" and Ennio Morricone's "Gabriel's Oboe" from the 1986 film "The Mission.

COSTA MESA — Six students from the Orange County High School of the Arts were treated to a surprise encounter Tuesday afternoon with internationally acclaimed pianist Lang Lang. It was more than a mere handshake. The Chinese musician — who just last week played in the White House for President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao — answered questions and even tickled the ivory and ebony keys with one of the students from the Santa Ana school. It was all part of his visit to Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts, where he was to perform that night with the Pacific Symphony in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

SANTA ANA — In a cluttered South Coast Metro warehouse, 15 pianos were scattered about. On that Wednesday morning, the soul of Chopin emanated from one of them from the skills of Gabriel Stevens. The 21-year-old Pacific Symphony intern and Cal State Fullerton music student was on hand for the last day of a seemingly unconventional art project: painting those 15 pianos destined for music-making throughout the county. Those and five others — 20 in total — are just one segment of the Costa Mesa-based Pacific Symphony's three-part promotion that's part impromptu playing, part planned performance and part "American Idol.

NEWPORT BEACH — Natalie Cernius took a liking to the piano even before she was big enough to reach the keys. As a toddler, she enjoyed crawling under the instrument during her older siblings' lessons. The notes from those sessions resonated in the toddler's ears and throughout their Dover Shores home. It was Natalie's early beginnings playfully scrambling between the piano legs and hearing those notes that likely helped give the 14-year-old the perfect pitch she has today.

NEWPORT BEACH — At 17, Michael Fleming has written the musical score for the upcoming "Our Town" production, which will open Friday night at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa. A junior at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, Fleming put together the music in less than a month after reading Thornton Wilder's three-act play of the same name, finding inspiration in the plot. "Our Town" is about a small community in New Hampshire called Grover's Corners; and although, in general, it's about the townspeople of that era, the story focuses on one woman, Emily Webb.

In his program of works by Bach, Chopin and Schubert, pianist Richard Goode was at his best while playing Bach’s fifth French Suite. The piece is composed of mostly light Baroque dance music, which suited Goode’s light touch and clean, crisp playing well. His fingers danced on the keys during the faster passages, and the ornamental trills were sharp and measured. Much of Bach’s music starts with a theme, which is repeated in the different voices (bass, middle range, treble)

In his program of works by Bach, Chopin and Schubert, pianist Richard Goode was at his best while playing Bach’s fifth French Suite. The piece is composed of mostly light Baroque dance music, which suited Goode’s light touch and clean, crisp playing well. His fingers danced on the keys during the faster passages, and the ornamental trills were sharp and measured. Much of Bach’s music starts with a theme, which is repeated in the different voices (bass, middle range, treble)

American pianist Richard Goode’s solo recital Wednesday night at UCI’s Irvine Barclay Theatre will not leave you gasping for air through a relentless barrage of blisteringly fast scales, crashing chords and flailing limbs. Goode, instead, uses his skill to explore the complexity of music, finding in every voice of a layered musical fabric a significance that is often overlooked by less sensitive musicians. Possessed of an unusually broad palette of tone colors, the pianist can imbue each voice with a different character.

Artists performing at New York City’s signature music venue, Carnegie Hall, will travel to the West Coast to play at the Orange County Performing Arts Center as part of a new partnership announced Wednesday. The first season of the partnership will bring a series of accomplished Chinese musicians to the center including Lang Lang — perhaps the most famous pianist in the world, who has played at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall before — and Grammy-winning composer-conductor Tan Dun, who wrote the score for the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.