This week, Ira Sternberg spoke with Concert Pianist Philip Fortenberry.
Philip Fortenberry, who performs his popular “The Man at the Piano,” concert at Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center on Monday, October 7, at 7 p.m., was most recently featured as the hand-and-body piano double for Michael Douglas, who portrayed Liberace in the May 2013 HBO Films biopic, “Behind the Candelabra.”
He is a Las Vegas resident since 2004 and currently the Associate Conductor of “Jersey Boys” at Paris Las Vegas.
Fortenberry holds a Master of Music degree in classical piano performance from New Jersey City University and was an adjunct faculty member in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. He was a 2004 recipient of a Distinguished Service Award from William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
His newest solo endeavor, “The Man at the Piano,” debuted in June at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, his first solo concert locally in two years.