About
Guest artists Kent Lyman (piano) and Sophie Lyman (cello) will perform a recital in Hahn Hall. Program to include works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Lili Boulanger, and Andrea Casarrubios.
Kent Lyman is a Steinway Artist, and was recently inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame. He has distinguished himself as a soloist and chamber musician throughout much of the United States, in South Korea, China, Italy, and Brazil. During his many trips to South Korea, he has taught master classes and performed as a soloist at universities and schools throughout the country, including Seoul National University, Sejong University, and many others. In May of 2018, he was invited to give the Keynote Speech at the National Conference of the Korean Piano Pedagogy Association at Sangmyoung University in Seoul. He delivered the lecture in Korean, which he speaks fluently. He has presented at the Music Teachers National Association Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, the National
Conference of the Sonneck Society for American Music in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu, among many others. For several summers, he worked as the principal rehearsal pianist for the International Young Artists Project, based in Monte San Savino, Italy. During a concert tour of Asia in the fall of 2007, he added China to his list of international venues, with concerts and master classes at conservatories of music in Shenyang and Guangzhou. He has toured Brazil, where he performed at the University of Campinas, and served as the opening concert artist and as a judge for the 22nd annual Paulo Giovanini National Piano Competition in Araçatuba, Brazil.
He has appeared with a number of orchestras, including the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Raleigh Civic Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle (Raleigh, NC), the Broward Symphony Orchestra (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) and the Florence Symphony Orchestra (South Carolina). As one of twelve nationally selected finalists, he has performed at the Chicago Symphony’s Ravinia Festival in master classes with Menahem Pressler, Leon Fleisher, and Misha Dichter. He has recorded for the Centaur label, and can be heard on a CD performing chamber works of the late American composer Virgil Thomson. There are also a number of professionally produced videos that are available to view on Youtube, including one of the only known recordings of Korean piano music by Bang-ja Hurh, her suite entitled Pieces of Arirang.
Kent Lyman is currently Professor of Music and Coordinator of Piano Studies at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was selected in 2025 to give Meredith College’s Faculty Distinguished Lecture, the college’s highest faculty recognition. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and master's and doctoral degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington, where he studied with James Tocco.
North Carolina native, Sophie Lyman, is pursuing her master’s degree in cello performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with Peter Stumpf. Prior to IU, she studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Melissa Kraut. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2024 with Brooks Whitehouse at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA).
Sophie was the third-place winner of the Grand Teton Music Festival’s Scholarship Competition, and a national finalist in both the Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Competition, and the Coltman Chamber Music Competition. As a concerto competition winner, she has soloed with the Brigham Young University Symphony Orchestra, and the Idaho Falls Youth Symphony. During her time at UNCSA, she organized the Suzuki cello program at their Community Music School. She serves as assistant director of the Lamar Stringfield Music Camp in Raleigh, NC, and plays with the Akron and Canton Symphony Orchestras. Having studied with cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios, Sophie enjoys performing her works at concerts and workshops throughout the country and abroad.
In the summer of 2025, Sophie was a fellow at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival. She has attended other festivals in China, Czechia, Germany, and Spain, as well as the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, VA, the Credo Chamber Music Festival at Oberlin Conservatory, and the Brevard Music Institute in Brevard, NC.
She loves collaborating with her family and is grateful for this opportunity to play with her father.
Free Admission
This event is free and open to the public.
Parking
Parking is available in the McKinley Parking Garage (entrance on Ashland Avenue) located immediately south of Sursa Hall. On weekdays, metered parking is available on the first floor of the garage until 7 p.m. at which time parking is free. This garage is free on weekends.