This is a special edition recording of cherished classical encores commemorating the fifty-year career of pianist MICHAEL COONROD. Consequently, such personal repertoire invites program notes which emerge as a fusion of stories and biographical material--a kind of musical autobiography. For example, several performances were influenced by Lucien Hut--teacher, mentor, friend--and it is appropriate that this entire CD would be a tribute to this professional Dutch musician. Furthermore, these hand-picked favorites flow smoothly from the warm lyricism in the opening Bach pieces, to the passion of the Spanish/Latin triumvirate and the excitement in the Rachmaninoff selections. This seventy-minute recital has been crafted for its diversity as well as its intense, expressive qualities, much like strategically-placed courses in a gourmet meal. Michael Coonrod has been a piano faculty member at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan for twenty-nine years. During this time, he has developed the potential in hundreds of students and has presented annual piano recital tours devoted to music with a central concept such as all-Schubert, Schumann, Bartok, Impressionistic, and all Spanish-Latin American programs. In 1994, he presented twenty concerts of music by contemporary American composers, culminating in Poland, where he performed at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, and the Music Conservatory in Poznan. More recently, he has performed Mozart's Concerto No. 14, KV 414, Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 Op. 58, and Bartok's Concerto No. 2. He has played for the American Liszt Society, the Eastman School of Music, and the Peabody Contemporary Music Ensemble. His early training came from the Dutch pianist Lucien Hut, after which he earned his Master and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, part of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with George Walker and Konrad Wolff (biographer and student of Artur Schnabel). Michael Coonrod has also recorded "The Muse of Chopin," (Twenty-four Preludes in the Romantic Style) as part of a book/CD entitled THE LIFE & MUSIC OF ALBERT JAMES FILLMORE, an anthology of music for piano, soprano, children's choir, and string orchestra with organ solo. (This recording is also listed with CD Baby.)