This article originally appeared in the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer on Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
Earle preparing for return to Carnegie Hall
In a few weeks, professional pianist Diane Earle will be heading back to the Big Apple for another performance engagement.
The musician, Owensboro Symphony pianist and professor emeritus of music at Kentucky Wesleyan College, will be in the New York City spotlight as part of the world premiere performance of Lloyd Larson’s new choral cantata “Amazing Grace: From Blind to Free” at 7 p.m. July 12 on the Perelman Stage, inside the Stern Auditorium, at Carnegie Hall.
For Earle, who estimates playing the venue around “a dozen” times, 2025 marks her 20-year anniversary since making her debut at the concert hall back in 2005.
“(It’s) amazing …,” she said. “It has gone by very quickly. I’ve had major life events in the 20 years — I’ve lost both parents and retired from my Kentucky Wesleyan job, but I feel like the same person.
“(I feel) very blessed to still be playing the piano,” Earle said.
According to a joint press release from True North Presents and Jubilate Music Group, the presenting entities of the premiere, “Amazing Grace: From Blind to Free” will detail the “compelling and extraordinary story” of English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist John Newton, who previously served as the captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade.
Surviving a life-threatening storm at sea eventually led Newton to write the popular Christian hymn “Amazing Grace” in 1772, which went on to be published seven years later. From then on, Newton crusaded for the abolishment of slavery, according to the release.
(more…)