A & E

Kypros Markou, music director of the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, talks about Saturday's performance that way.

"It was time to do a work that we hadn't done before and we had a pianist who clearly has a good understanding and feeling for the piece," he says. "It was the right time to do it."

The result will feature Russian-born pianist Daria Rabotkina performing Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, a work by a composer she respects greatly.

"He is amazing," she says about Prokofiev. "Not only does he have a great energy and drive, but he can be so lyrical as well."

The concert also will feature the Overture to the "Magic Flute," by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Symphony No. 5, by Ludwig van Beethoven, works Markou says will wrap up the season in a "powerful but familiar" sense.

The concerto, however, is the featured work in its display of Rabotkina and a composer whom he would like to present more often.

When a member of the symphony's board provided him with a recording of Rabotkina playing the concerto, he saw it as a good opportunity to add Prokofiev to this schedule.

"Most times when I get a recording, I say no," he says. "But this was very good and a live performance, so there was no editing."

For Rabotkina, celebrating her 26th birthday today, it is an opportunity perform, "which is when I am most happy in my life."

She also regularly performs Prokofiev's first concerto, four of his etudes and one of his sonatas.

While she is going to be starting work on her doctorate next year, she says she "will never turn down the chance to perform."

She will be moving from Philadelphia to Rochester, N.Y., where she will attend the Eastman School of Music.

Rabotkina, born in Kazan, Russia, came to the United States eight years ago to attend the Mannes College of Music in New York City. Her parents were pianists, and she studied at the Special Music School in Kazan before coming to the United States.

At Mannes, she was a student of the dynamic pianist Vladimir Feltsman, who performed with the Westmoreland orchestra in 1996, '98 and '99.

"I feel very honored to be following in his footsteps," she says.

She has performed with the San Francisco, Kirov, Moscow State, Kazan, Jacksonville and Winnipeg symphony orchestras, among others.

While she admits performing is the most important aspect of her musical life, she is convinced going into doctoral studies is the next step for her.

"I need to learn new repertoire, that's true," she says about the education process. "But this is a different time in my life, and I need to be really serious about music."

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