Evren Ozel exudes an air of attentive good cheer while awaiting his cues in what would be a prizewinning Mozart concerto, then bursts into a performance as deft and playful as the composer’s own might have been.
Playing a Bartόk solo, he hunches and hammers the keys, equally possessed with that composer’s intensity.
Lorin Wilkerson described what the Grand Piano Series audience will soon experience at this American pianist’s hands: “Ozel’s way of total immersion into Beethoven, so that all the poignancy and proto-Romantic intent is brought to the fore” (Oregon Artswatch)…