Event will honor Professor Emeritus Robyn Gibson

(COLUMBIA, SC) Polish-born pianist Pawel Checinski, whose international performing career has spanned five continents, will perform at Columbia College on Friday, September 30, 7:30 p.m., in the Concert Hall of Spears Music/Art Center. The all-Chopin program will include the seldom-performed works "Fantasy on Polish Airs, op. 13" and Variations on "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart's Don Giovanni.. The event is being held in honor of Professor Emeritus of Music Robyn Gibson, who retired from Columbia College on June 30 after 35 years of teaching.

The event is open to the public at no charge. However, donations will benefit The Friends of Music at Columbia College.

Checinski began piano studies at the age of six, attending schools for the musically gifted. He graduated with a master of arts degree, with honors, from the Music Academy in Warsaw and was awarded a Fulbright Grant to continue his studies in the United States, where he earned both master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from the Julliard School. He has taught at Penn State University, the University of British Columbia, and Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts; conducted master classes in the U.S., Poland, Canada, and Asia; won numerous awards throughout the world; and performed in Poland, Hungary, England, Czechoslovakia, Germany, the Soviet Union, Brazil, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong King, Japan, the Republic of China, Canada, and the United States.

Columbia College, founded in 1854 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church, is a private, liberal arts, women's college with a coeducational Evening College and Graduate School. The College is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top undergraduate colleges in the South. Enrollment is 1500 students from 23 states and 20 countries.