NATCHITOCHES – Pianist Joseph Fleetwood will present a recital on Tuesday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. The concert is part of the Louisiana Piano Series International. Tickets are $15. Northwestern State University, BPCC@NSU and Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts students are admitted free with a current student I.D. A livestream will be available at capa.nsula.edu/livestream. Northwestern State Assistant Professor of Piano Dr. John Price and Associate Professor of Piano Dr. Francis Yang are co-directors of the of the Louisiana Piano Series International. 

The concert will include works by Beethoven and Rachmaninoff. 

Fleetwood has performed throughout Europe and the U.S. As a concerto soloist he has performed many of the great piano concertos including Tchaikovsky 1 and 2, Rachmaninoff “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” Rachmaninoff 1 and 2, Beethoven 1 – 5, Mozart 21, Shostakovich 2, Grieg, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Mendelssohn 1. 

His playing has attracted high praise from critics and other musicians alike, with commentators noting ‘Joseph Fleetwood is an outstanding young performer’ (Murray McLachlan of Chethams), “Played with the precision of a fine-arts jeweler, you elevated the art of playing the Chopin Revolutionary Etude to a higher plane….You played with a beautiful delicacy of touch and absolute clarity. Your Bach performance was perfect” (Alexander Korsantia of the New England Conservatoire). 

Fleetwood’s playing has been broadcast on BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC Radio Scotland, and regional stations throughout the U.K. as both live performances and CD recordings. His debut CD featured some popular and lesser-known works by Edvard Grieg, and his 2020 album of the J.S. Bach “Partitas” sold 750,000 digital copies on the Sheva Label.  

In 2016, he was commissioned to compose a short piece of music for Piano Restorations Ltd. in the U.K., and the resulting piece has been filmed and made into a TV commercial for the company. The video, which was posted on classic FM’s Facebook page, has received over 756,000 views and is currently the most viewed video on their page.