On Thursday, March 19 at 12:15 p.m., Westminster Conservatory at Nassau will celebrate the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach in a performance of his music by Conservatory faculty pianist Theodore Hendricks-Verdejo. The free recital will take place in the Niles Chapel of Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau Street.

“Happy Birthday, Johann Sebastian!” includes the arrangement by Wilhelm Kempff of the Siciliano from the Flute sonata in G Minor, the Partita No. 1 in B-flat, and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903.

A native of Trenton, Hendricks-Verdejo pursued his early piano studies with Josephine Hence. He later enrolled at Escuela Libre de Música in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, where he studied with Isabelita Carrasquillo, Rosita Casanova, and Alicia Villar Sicardo. Following graduation from Escuela Libre de Música, he attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. At Peabody, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance as a pupil of Professor Ellen Mack. He undertook post-graduate studies at Temple University with pianist Natalie Hinderas.

Hendricks-Verdejo has performed in the continental USA, the Caribbean, and Japan, both in live performances and in radio and television broadcasts. In March of 2015, he presented J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Westminster Choir College. He also performed the work in San Juan in 2018. Preceding his performance, Hendricks-Verdejo offered a master class for Conservatory pianists, covering a wide range of repertoire. As part of Westminster Conservatory’s Beethoven Sonata project in commemoration of the composer’s 250th birthday, he performed Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata in December of 2020. More recently, Hendricks-Verdejo performed a piano recital at the Conservatorio de Música in San Juan, PR, in celebration of his seventh decade.