Recent News

December 15, 2006

Law school scholarship benefit concert Jan. 27

Pianist Stewart Goodyear will be the featured artist for this year’s Schermer Fund of the Columbus Bar Foundation benefit which raises money for scholarships for women and minority law students. The Foundation’s Marsha Schermer Endowment, in conjunction with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, is proud to support rising African-American musicians. Goodyear will be performing Gershwin’s Concerto for Piano in F Major under the direction of Guest Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson. This special fundraising event is sponsored by Jones Day, Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter, Terry and Cindy O’Connell, and Time Warner Cable.

Tickets may be purchased from the Columbus Bar Foundation for $75 per person (charitable contribution is $25 per ticket) and include a pre-concert reception with Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson at 6:30 hosted by Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter, 65 E. State Street, Suite 1800; the concert at the Ohio Theatre; and admission to the Patron Club Lounge at intermission.

Proceeds from the tickets are used to support the Schermer Scholarship Fund for female and/or minority law students. To date the fund has awarded eight scholarships: Amy Stuckey 2005, Lisa Whitaker 2007, Tonya McCreary Williams 2006, OSU Moritz; and Mark Hatcher 2006, Shawnda Martin 2006, Sara Denise Roig 2007, Megan Mathews 2008, Lucy Chandler 2009, Capital University Law.

The San Antonio Express News referred to Stewart  Goodyear’s performance as “Gargantuan technique, awesome timing, oceanic depth, and volcanic fire.” The 26-year-old Goodyear is an accomplished young artist whose career is on the rise.

Stewart Goodyear is one of the rare classical musicians who improvises his cadenzas when performing concertos from the classical period. He has been praised repeatedly for the inspiring individuality and appreciation of the composer’s own style that he conveys in every performance. After a performance of Mozart’s Concerto K. 467 with the Philadelphia Orchestra in January 2000 the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “The cadenzas were where the real magic was. In them, Goodyear produced surprising harmonies, turning familiar melodies on their head by giving them new context. He led back into the tutti sections in a particularly daring and exhilarating way with fully formed ideas, keeping the listener guessing whether the end was really in sight. All the cadenza material had an improvised feel, and in fact, Goodyear was writing them as we listened.”