Baran piano studio plans recital

Staff report

CANFIELD

The Sean Baran Studio’s annual spring piano program will be Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Ursuline Center, 4280 Shields Road.

The Steinway grand piano recital will feature Sean Baran, an instructor at the Dana School of Music and founder of the studio, along with Michael Nichols, winner of the Dana Young Artist Competition, and Liam Roberts, Nina Gordon, Angelina Tiberio, Benjamin Ams and Luke Marti.

The event is sponsored by the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society. The program will include selections by Beethoven, Debussy, Shostakovich, Mozart and more.

Admission is $5 and reservations are suggested; call McGuffey society chairman Richard S. Scarsella at 330-726-8277.

Baran is the organist at Boardman United Methodist Church who maintains a private piano studio in Boardman. Baran won the 2010 Dana Young Artist Contest and participated in the Zodiac Music Academy and Festival in France.

Nichols has been performing since age 11. He has performed in numerous concerts at Youngstown State University and Chaney High School, recitals and plays.

The WHMHS will be selling its new DVD titled “William Holmes McGuffey: America’s Schoolmaster” in celebration of its 55th anniversary. The society provides public programming in an effort to keep the McGuffey legacy alive in the area. McGuffey is best known as the author of the famous Eclectic Readers, first published in 1836 and still in print. His homestead is a National Historic Landmark located in Coitsville Township. Now known as the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, it was donated to Mill Creek Metroparks by the WHMHS in 1998.