Derek Hartman Comes to Town

Derek Hartman. Photo supplied by Hartman.

Every other year, Milwaukee’s PianoArts organization invites a small group of exceptionally talented musicians between the ages of 17 and 22 to the city for its North American Piano Competition. Participating pianists leave Milwaukee with performance experience, new skills, and, for some, cash prizes.

Derek Hartman, an award-winner in 2018, will appear Friday, April 4, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Performing Arts, presenting a program of piano music by 18th, 19th, and 20th century composers. It will be a homecoming of sorts; as a finalist in the 2018 competition, Hartman performed a Beethoven concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on the Wilson Center main stage.

Hartman was an undergraduate at Northwestern University at the time. He has since completed all coursework, exams, recitals, and a thesis required for a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Yale University School of Music. He’ll receive the degree next year, after completing three years of resumé-building activities including competitions, performances, and teaching. Hartman honed his teaching skills during a year-long fellowship at the New School for Music Study at the Francis Clark Center in New Jersey, and, in 2024, joined the faculty of the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music in Nashville, TN.

Friday’s recital is part of the Wilson Center’s Studio Series. Hartman will take advantage of the series’ relaxed format to talk with the audience about the pieces on the program and their connection to his own musical journey. The Sonata No. 28 in A major by Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) is a great example. Professing to have loved the composer since the age of six, he finds that “Beethoven is making a grand statement in this sonata, particularly in the final movement. He blows up our expectations.” Hartman has chosen the work as the centerpiece of his program at the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, Austria later this spring.

Ten Preludes by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) illustrate “the full scope of what Rachmaninoff has to offer,” Hartman says. Written in the early 20^th century, the Preludes “tell dramatic stories with luscious melodies,” he adds. Hartman performed some of the preludes during his doctorate recital at Yale, and lectured about them at the New School.

Contemporary composer Lowell Liebermann (born 1961), whose work is described as “unabashedly romantic and modern,” is a favorite of Hartman’s. He played a Liebermann sonata during the 2018 PianoArts competition, and will introduce a brand-new composition, Moment Musical, on Friday. The work was commissioned for the 2025 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, held last month. Hartman and 19 other contestants were given the score in December; their performance during the competition resulted in 20 world premieres.

“The piece is an homage to Rachmaninoff,” Hartman says “It could be the 11^th prelude that Rachmaninoff didn’t write.”

Hartman’s recital program also includes compositions by Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), and Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915).  The performance is at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 4, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Performing Arts, 3270 Mitchell Park Dr., Brookfield.  Tickets are available online.