Nariaki Sugiura, a native of Japan, received his master’s and doctorate in piano performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He will perform a concert of historical left-hand music Sept. 28 in Warsaw. Photos provided.

News Release

WINONA LAKE — The Community Arts Program of Kosciusko County is welcoming Nariaki Sugiura to Warsaw for a piano concert performance on Saturday, Sept. 28. The concert will be held at 4 p.m. at the Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 210 S. High St., Warsaw.

Judie Meulink, artistic director for the Community Arts Vocal Vision Youth programs, was instrumental in bringing this concert to Warsaw.

Eunsong Kim, a student of Sugiura’s, will also perform.

“You will not want to miss this concert,” said Meulink. “Dr. Sugiura is a phenomenal pianist and has performed in the Warsaw area for the last few years. … He is bringing his student, Eunsong (Grace) Kim, who proves to be an accomplished pianist also. The concert will be focused on pieces for the piano that use only the left hand — a different type of concert, but one that will be very enjoyable.”

The concert will feature piano music played with the left hand only (left-hand piano music), which has a special and historical significance. Although left-hand piano music existed before World War I, its prominence flourished partly following WWI because of the concert pianists who lost their right arms and the prominent composers who wrote music for them.

Austrian concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein was sent to the front line in World War I and because of a severe injury had to have his right arm amputated. After returning from the war, he was determined to continue living as a concert pianist, and he began commissioning many prominent composers of the time including Ravel, Prokofiev, Hindemith, R. Strauss and Bortkiewicz. They were inspired by his determination to continue his career as a pianist, and many left-hand piano pieces were created during that time.

Sugiura reflects that “through left-hand piano music, this disabled soldier-pianist encouraged the people of Europe who had been traumatized by the war. The role of music in war can be divided into two categories. The first is music that encourages people to fight, and we could call this wartime music,” Sugiura said. “The other genre is music that soothes the hearts devastated by battle and moves towards recovery. This could be called postwar music. It displays the true power of music to heal the soul in postwar society. I believe that left-hand piano music belongs to this genre.”

The community is invited to attend the piano concert on Sept. 28. In addition to this concert, Sugiura will lead a piano master class at 1 p.m. Information about the piano master class is available by contacting Meulink by email at [email protected].