Special program will act as inaugural harpsichord concert

Stephen Alltop

GREENCASTLE -- The DePauw University School of Music will feature guest artist Stephen Alltop in a special program Thursday.

Alltop will present the inaugural performance of a handcrafted harpsichord built for the School of Music by Theodore Robertson of Ellettsville. The dedication concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Thompson Recital Hall in the Judson and Joyce Green Center for Performing Arts, and will include works by Handel, Scarlatti, Rameau and Bach.

Alltop made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concert debut as a harpsichord soloist in 2009 playing Bach with conductor Pinchas Zukerman. As a harpsichordist and organist, he has performed with the Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Sinfonietta, Joffrey Ballet, Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, and the Peninsula Music Festival. Mr. Alltop has recorded Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 on the American Gramaphone label and a disc of baroque arias with soprano Julianne Baird and trumpeter Darin Kelly on the Albany label.

Theodore Robertson is renowned for building harpsichords to faithfully reproduce specific tone and mechanical aspects based on historical principles in harpsichord construction. The new instrument features the builder's original artwork created exclusively for this harpsichord.

This event is free and open to the public.