Showtime

What: David Fawcett's Piano Concerto

Who: Erika Reiman with Keith Kinder's McMaster Chamber Orchestra

When: Sunday at 3 p.m.

Where: McMaster's Convocation Hall

Cost: $10, student $5

Call: 905-525-9140, ext. 24246

All it took was a casual conversation, and David Fawcett was on his way to composing a piano concerto.

After pianist Erika Reiman had played in a couple of Fawcett's pieces for soprano, flute and piano at Central Presbyterian's Sundays at three Lenten concert series, Fawcett asked her if she'd be interested in playing a future solo piano work of his.

Fawcett, who'd never written anything for solo piano, was thinking modestly.

A sonatina, perhaps. Reiman was thinking big. "How about a concerto?" she responded.

That was two summers ago. Fawcett, a teacher at Buchanan Park Public School in Hamilton, admits that he doesn't compose during the school year.

"I compose almost exclusively during the breaks," he stated.

"In the summertime, I write every day, three, four, five hours. Other people go to the cottage. I stay in Hamilton and compose."

The result of his summer labours was a three-movement concerto lasting 30 minutes.

The work will be premiered tomorrow afternoon by Reiman with Kinder leading the Mac Chamber Orchestra in Convocation Hall.

The concert will also include Beethoven's Second Symphony, Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances, and Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring.

Leonard Turnevicius writes on classical music for The Spectator.

leonardturnevicius@hotmail.com