VIDALIA&045;To celebrate National Library Week, Concordia Parish Library will be presenting a Classical Chamber Concert at Concordia Bank and Trust at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Cellist Evan Drachman, who has the ability to make the cello imitate the human voice, will be accompanied by pianist Thomas Hoppe.

Drachman is the founder and artistic director of the Piatigorsky Foundation in New York, which is named for his grandfather, the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky.

In 1999, Drachman released his first CD titled, &uot;A Frog He Went a Courting,&uot; with pianist Richard Dowling.

&uot;Drachman possesses in abundance two qualities for which his grandfather was revered: the ability to make the cello imitate the human singing voice and, even more important, the ability to tell a story,&uot; wrote The Baltimore Sun’s Steven Wigler of the recording.

Born in Boston, Drachman studied at the Peabody Conservatory, the New England Conservatory and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1988.

Since Drachman’s graduation, he has performed regularly as a soloist, with orchestras, in recitals and chamber music performances across the United States. Drachman has also played abroad in numerous music festivals.

Hoppe has also performed in the United States and abroad with instrumentalists and singers.

During the past season, Hoppe has performed several times in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, at Alice Tully Hall, Temple Emanu-El and the Bohemians Musician Club New York.

Hoppe’s national tours have included Texas, Louisiana and Alabama with singers of the Piatigorksy Foundation.

A native of Germany, Hoppe received his early training from Agathe Wanek at the Peter-Cornelius-Conservatory in Maintz. He came to the United States in 1993, to study with Maestro Lee Luvisi.

Hoppe was the first recipient of the Samuel Sanders Memorial Award at the Julliard School of Music and finished his graduated studies in May 2001 with a diploma in collaborative arts.

Hoppe continues his affiliation with Julliard as staff accompanist and works for different studios.