Mike Moritz rehearses Mozart Concerto #23 with the LSCO on stage at L-S.
Lincoln resident Michael Moritz is usually a clarinetist with the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra (LSCO)—but on January 11, he’ll man the keyboard as soloist in a Mozart piano concerto.
The concert at the high school opens the LSCO’s 42nd season. Managing Director William Nicholson conducts the orchestra, which will play the Peer Gynt Suite for Orchestra #1 by Edvard Grieg, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #2 in C minor (“Little Russian”). Moritz will be the soloist for Mozart’s Piano Concerto #23 in A major.
Moritz has played piano since early childhood and studied with John Buttrick while he was pursuing his B.S. in mathematics at MIT. He appeared as soloist with the MIT Concert Band under the direction of John Corley, performing the Concerto for Piano and Winds by Igor Stravinski. He has also studied with Yasuo Watanabe and Theodore Lettvin of the New England Conservatory.
Moritz and his wife Kathy have lived in Lincoln for 22 years and raised four children, all of whom graduated from L-S between 2006 and 2011: Amanda, Megan and Manu, and Istvan. He joined the LSCO as a clarinetist in 2004 to play alongside his flutist daughter Amanda.
“Before Mike approached me to play the Mozart 23rd, I hadn’t realized how gifted a pianist he was,” Nicholson said. “He has been a great contributor in the clarinet section of the orchestra for ten years now, and during every rehearsal break, he races over to the piano to play Chopin and Brahms, so we knew he was dedicated and passionate about the piano. In the spring, we traditionally feature graduating student members in concerto performances, but it’s exciting to use the winter concert to showcase the unique artistry of our adult members.”
“I took up clarinet in my 30s when my piano was in storage while Kathy and I were remodeling our place in Cambridge,”Moritz said. “She knew I was going nuts not playing music, and my mother told her I had played clarinet as a kid, but stopped before high school. So I came home from work one day to find a Buffet clarinet and a BU graduate student, my new teacher, waiting for me.
“It was a revelation playing a melody instrument,” Moritz continued. “A piano is a percussion instrument—you hit strings with hammers and the sound decays as soon as it begins. The legendary Myra Hess talked about creating the ‘illusion’ of the singing tone. But the clarinet, and all the other wind and string instruments, can sustain its sound, making crescendo and decrescendo on any note and truly making a singing tone. I believe playing each instrument has made me better at the other.”
Admission to the January 11 concert, which begins at 7:30 p.m., is a suggested donation of $10. Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School is located at 390 Lincoln Rd in Sudbury.