Nancy Lindberg Ohlbach Piano Recital, Sept. 25

Pianist Nancy Lindberg Ohlbach, a Galesburg native and acclaimed performer and educator, will give a free, public solo recital at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, September 25, in Kresge Recital Hall, Ford Center for the Fine Arts. The recital is sponsored by the Knox College Music Department.

Great-great granddaughter of Karl Laux, a prominent member of the  music faculty at Knox in the 1870s, Ohlbach began her formal piano studies at the age of four with Marion Van Norman of Galesburg. She has studied at San Diego State University and the University of Washington, including extensive work in chamber music and voice. In addition to performing and teaching in the San Francisco area, Ohlbach founded the East Bay Community Music Center, now the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. She also served as vice president of the Northern California Executive Board of the National Federation of Music Clubs.

She has studied piano with Howard Brubeck, Benny Brock Kemp, Randolph Hokansen, Bernhard Abramowitsch, Alexander Libermann and Ruth Slenczynska; chamber music with violinist Gilbert Back of the Bertin and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, cellist Eva Heinitz, internationally known as the "Grande Dame of the Cello," and the Alexander String Quartet; and voice with Robert Shaw, Roger Wagner, Peter Wilhousky and Meredith Willson.

Since 1998 Ohlbach has performed several times with Knox College faculty members Robin Metz, poet and professor of English, and Bruce Polay, pianist and professor of music. She has given west coast premieres of several of Polay's compositions. Her recent recitals include performances at the San Francisco Symphony League, San Francisco City College, San Francisco State University, San Francisco Musicale, and benefit recitals for the San Mateo Center for the Performing Arts.

Ohlbach is currently collaborating with Southern Illinois University and the University of Southern California on a documentary about Ruth Slenczynska, one of the most famous piano child prodigies of the 20th century.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 45 states and 48 countries. Knox's "Old Main" is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.