Pianist Ran Dank, described by The New York Times as “a player with technique, imagination and powerhouse pianism,” will present a program of the work of Chopin and Rzewski at 7:30 p.m. April 13 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

The concert is sponsored by the Department of Music.

Dank, awarded First Prize at the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, will present a program titled “Politically inspired: Chopin & Rzewski.” The first half of the program will feature Chopin mazurkas, bookended by two of his polonaises. The second half will feature American composer Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” a set of 36 variations based on a Chilean protest song by Sergio Ortega.

Rzewski performed the work in UB’s Baird Recital Hall in April 1977, shortly after its composition.

Buffalo News critic Herman Trotter, who attended that performance, recently wrote that he was “both thunderstruck by the work’s overwhelmingly expressive power and dumbstruck at the simplicity of the elements from which the music is drawn.”

Dank will teach a master class from noon to 2 p.m. on April 14 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus. The class, which will free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Annaliese Soros Educational Residency Program and by Young Concert Artists.

Advance tickets for Dank’s April 13 concert are $12 for general admission, $9 for UB faculty/staff/alumni and senior citizens, and $5 for students. At the door, tickets are $20, $15 and $8. Tickets can be obtained by calling the Slee Hall box office at 645-2921, in person or by calling the Center for the Arts box office at 645-2787 or online at tickets.com.