POLLY FERMAN, Pianist

One of the leading interpreters of the music of the Americas, New York-based pianist Polly Ferman continues to captivate audiences with her outstanding performances of works by Gottschalk, Nazareth, Gershwin, Villa-Lobos, Ginastera, Piazzolla and many others. Her mastery of the literature prompted The Japan Times to recognize her as "a Musical Ambassador of the Americas."

Ferman's extensive tours as a soloist have included performances with the Symphonies of San Francisco, Colorado, Vancouver, and Indianapolis, as well as the Tokyo Philharmonic, Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra (Ukraine), Philippines Philharmonic, Sâo Paulo State Symphony., the National Symphony of Argentina and Camerata Romeu in Cuba, in addition to recitals at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory and Takemitsu Halls, Virginia’s Wolf Trap, London’s St. Martin in the Fields, Koncert Halle of Munich, and the Buenos Aires Teatro Colon. Ferman was the only soloist selected to play at the Pan American Games of 1992, where she performed Villa-Lobos’ Momo Precoce for piano and orchestra with the Indianapolis Symphony. Her performances were featured in a 2005 nationally televised PBS documentary special: Tango the Spirit of Argentina and in the Brazilian movie A Viuva da Rua Siria.

Ms. Ferman's collaborations include duo performances with guitarist Eduardo Isaac and bandoneonist Daniel Binelli, and performances as guest artist in Binelli's quintet, Tango Metropolis and with the Orquestango project, with which she has toured extensively in Europe, Japan, Australia and the U.S. She is also Music Director and pianist for Leading Ladies of Tango, the first all-female tango music and dance show. Polly Ferman’s has created, directs and performs as pianist, GlamourTango, a musical celebrating Women in Tango with an all female cast of musicians and dancers. www.glamourtango.com

Ferman's numerous recordings constitute one of the world’s most extensive collections of Latin American repertoire, including such titles as “Argentine Piano Music”, “Waltzes of the Americas,” “Habaneras, Milongas and Tangos,” disks devoted to the music of Nazareth, Lecuona and Ariel Ramirez and collaborations with Daniel Binelli in “Images of Buenos Aires, ”and “Orquestango 1 & 2,” “Tango Metropolis” and “New Tango Vision” with Binelli and Eduardo Isaac, and are available on Music Masters, Musical Heritage Society, PAMAR, Talent Romeo Records, EPSA Music, Sondor and New Vision.

Polly Ferman began her musical studies at the age of three in her native Uruguay, giving her first recital at seven and winning the Jeunesses Musicales Competition at the age of nine. She went on to attend the J.S. Bach Conservatory as a pupil of Santiago Baranda Reyes. Later she studied with Celia Bronstein in Buenos Aires and Eugene List and William Daghlian in New York City. Visit her online at www.pollyferman.net .

She is the founder and Artistic Director of New York-based PAMAR (Pan American Musical Art Research, Inc.- http://www.pamar.org), a nonprofit organization founded in 1984 in New York City, whose purpose is to promote better understanding among the various countries and cultures of the Americas. She is also the Producer and Director of the organization’s Latin American Cultural Week in New York, which features music, dance, literature, visual arts, theater and film of and by Latin American artists in more than two dozen of New York’s leading cultural institutions. More information about it can be found online at http://www.pamar.org/programs/default.asp.