LEWISTON — Christopher Staknys, 20, aspiring concert artist and composer, returns to L/A’s Gendron Franco Center on Friday, Jan. 20, to present the third program in the Center’s 11th Piano Series season.  His recital, which begins at 7 p.m., will feature works by Mozart, Chopin, Ravel, Staknys, Schubert and Scriabin.

A 2014 graduate of Falmouth High School, Staknys, now a 3rd-year student at the Juilliard School, New York City, learned to read music and began composing almost before he learned to read.  He began formal piano lessons at age 6.  He studied for two years at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and participated in the preparatory program at the New England Conservatory.

He has participated in several festivals, notably, Tanglewood, Bowdoin, Summit, Killington and Greenwood, and he is also the recipient of numerous prizes. He was also winner of the Rivers School Conservatory Concerto Competition and the New England Conservatory’s Prep Concerto Competition.  In 2013, he received first prize in the senior division of the Steinway Society Piano Competition. 

In 2015, he performed with pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi as part of the Rivers Conservatory’s Chopin Symposium.  Chosen as a YoungsArts Winner, he traveled to Miami to participate in National Young Arts Week.  He has won prizes in the Maine Music Educators Association’s Composers Competition, Music without Limits (Lithuania), the Boston Trio Competition, and the Bagaduce Young Composer’s Festival, Blue Hill.

A composer from an early age, Staknys’ debut performance at the Franco Center in June 2006 was part of the Portland Conservatory’s Piano Festival.  Having broken his right arm shortly before that event, he promptly composed a piece for left hand.  In 2010, his composition “Congo” was given its premiere by the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and his “Summer Evening in Maine” was featured in the 2011 Fourth of July Pops Festival in Blue Hill.  In November that year, he returned to Performance Hall to present a Piano Series program, including a performance of his “Tryptich.”

 He has appeared on NPR’s “From the Top” and his works are regularly heard on WRUV radio, Burlington, Vermont.

Last summer, Staknys received a full scholarship to study composition and analysis at La Schola Cantorum in Paris.  In addition to his studies, he attended a performance of his string quartet, held in the same hall where Debussy and Satie had seen their works performed.  Last month, he was honored to play American composer Steve Reich’s piece “City Life” for the composer himself at his 80th birthday celebration. 

Admission is $15, seniors, $10 and students are free. The Dolard and Priscilla Gendron Franco Center is handicap accessible. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. All proceeds to benefit the Franco Center.  Contact or visit the Box Office or go to francocenter.org.  Call 207-783-1585.  Box office hours are Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. and two hours before every show.