Virtuosi of Piano and Dance" Spotlights Visionary Composers
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"VIRTUOSI OF PIANO AND DANCE" SPOTLIGHTS VISIONARY COMPOSERS WITH VISIONARY PROGRAM IN WILSON THEATER AT VOGEL HALL AT MARCUS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER ON JUNE 16 CELEBRATING 20 YEARS 1999 – 2019 Performing symphonic works on piano and piano Sue Medford works with dancers, pianists Varshavski-Shapiro Duo, www.pianoarts.org Aleksandra Kasman, Christopher Taylor, and [email protected] • 414-962-3055 choreographer Timothy O'Donnell bring new vision to revolutionary works by Stravinsky, Chopin, and Beethoven (Milwaukee May 28, 2019) –– PianoArts culminates its 20th anniversary festival with artistic partners who bring musical versatility and new insights into the performance of the classics. At 8:00 p.m. on June 16, the Varshavski-Shapiro Duo will perform Igor Stravinsky's ballet score Petrouchka with their own arrangement for piano, four hands. Originally written at the piano, Stravinsky then scored his complex ballet music into a colorful and imaginative orchestral score. The duo's transcription brings the richness of the orchestral score to the piano as they retell the sad musical story about a puppet from Russian folklore. Milwaukee Ballet choreographer Timothy O'Donnell presents his vision of Frédéric Chopin's études with a dance work for pianist Aleksandra Kasman and MBC dancers. Dancing to the études of No. 1, No. 3, and No. 12 from Opus 10, a set of pieces that Chopin dedicated to his visionary friend Franz Liszt, the work will conclude with one of Chopin's most recognized works, his "Revolutionary" Étude. Christopher Taylor will bring the festival to a dazzling close when he rings out the four most famous notes in music, performing Franz Liszt's towering transcription of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. One of the most innovative pianists on the international stage, Mr. Taylor returns to the PianoArts stage for the first time following his performance of one of the most monumental works in the piano repertory, Olivier Messiaen's Vingt Regards Sur L'Enfant-Jésus. At 7:00 p.m. on June 16, audiences are invited to attend a pre-concert lecture by Meaghan Heinrich, who will provide the back stories and an enlightening look at the revolutionary classics that are featured on the program Ticket Information Tickets, priced at $35 and $25 for adults; and $15 for students, are available at the Marcus Performing Arts Center box office, 929 North Water Street, Milwaukee, 414-273-7206. Festival passes are available through PianoArts www.pianoarts.org, [email protected], 414-962-3055. XXX See next page for information on the festival and biographies of the artists. Addendum to news release for concert June 16, 2019 May 28, 2019 p. 2 About the 2019 PianoArts Festival 20th Anniversary Festival From June 14-16, PianoArts will host a festival to celebrate its 20th anniversary of the launch of its Biennial North American Piano Competition. Joining the festivities will be over twenty artists: singers and actors, instrumentalists who include PianoArts competition winners, dancers, and jazz artists. Prior to the concerts, celebrated master teachers present workshops and lectures that bring insight into the concert programs. Concerts and lectures on June 14 and 15 will be held at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, 1584 North Prospect Avenue, and on June 16 in the Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Performing Arts Center. For more information, visit www.PianoArts.org Online information about the artists: http://pianoarts.org/education/virtuosi-of-piano-and-dance/ About the Artists The Varshavski-Shapiro Piano Duo has performed in such distinguished venues as the HKAPA Concert Hall in Hong Kong, Henry Crown Symphony Hall in Jerusalem, Rome’s Teatro Valle, and Miami’s Lincoln Theater. They have appeared with the Radio Orchestra in Munich, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, and Miami’s New World Symphony. Outside their current home base in Wisconsin and Illinois, the duo's recent appearances include Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Texas, performing Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra. They have recorded for the Bavarian Radio, Radio 4 of Hong Kong, the Israeli National Radio and TV, New York’s WQXR, and recently produced a compact disc in collaboration with Wisconsin Public Radio. Ms. Varshavski and Ms. Shapiro hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance where they studied under Eden–Tamir Piano Duo. They also studied with American pianist Victor Rosenbaum and, in 2011, received their doctorates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ms. Shapiro is Associate Professor and Music Chair at Silver Lake College and Ms. Varshavski is Education Director at Holy Family Music Conservatory. Aleksandra (Sasha) Kasman, Russian-American pianist, has performed recitals and soloed with orchestras in the United States, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, France, Japan, and Korea. She won first prizes for the 2017 Premio Roberto Melini International Competition, the National Federation of Music Clubs Collegiate, High Point University Inaugural Piano Competition, and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival’s MacKenzie Competitions, as well as top prizes at the International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz, and the Wideman and Arthur Fraser Addendum to news release for Concert on June 16, 2019, May 28, 2019 p. 3 International Competitions, among many others. A dedicated educator, Ms. Kasman holds a PianoArts Artist-in-Residence Fellowship, and recently completed her fourth consecutive tour teaching and performing for PianoArts. Fluent in French, Ms. Kasman gives presentations speaking in French, master classes for piano students, and is in demand for her insightful and enjoyable education concerts. Born into a musical family in Moscow, Russia, she grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where she studied with her father and later piano duo partner, Yakov Kasman. Ms. Kasman received her Master of Music degree in piano performance at The Juilliard School, and in the fall, she will pursue a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan. With a love of piano and a passion for dance, she looks forward eagerly to her collaboration with Milwaukee Ballet’s Timothy O’Donnell. Timothy O’Donnell began training at his mother’s ballet school at age seven. He continued at The Australian Ballet School where he received several awards, including The Australian Institute of Classical Dance’s national choreographic competition. After graduating, he joined West Australian Ballet where he performed principal and soloist roles and worked closely with many celebrated international artists such as Paul Lightfoot, Petr Zuska, Simon Dow, Matjash Morzewski, and Ivan Cavallari. In 2007, he won the “Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer” award at the West Australian Dance Awards. In 2009, Mr. O’Donnell won Milwaukee Ballet’s international choreographic competition, Genesis, for The Games We Play. He returned in 2010 to create Boléro–Let There Be Light. He has also appeared as a choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance–Australia. Since joining Milwaukee Ballet in 2012, O’Donnell has appeared as Marcello in La Bohème, Verdigris (the green stepsister) in Cinderella, and the title character in Dorian Gray. As resident choreographer, he has staged five world premieres: Children of the Wall, Talk to Me, The Sixth Sin, More Truth Than Poetry, and Sans Pleurer. This is his seventh season with Milwaukee Ballet. Christopher Taylor, hailed by critics as “frighteningly talented” (The New York Times), has distinguished himself as an innovative musician with a diversity of interests and talents. Known for his advocacy of music written in the past 100 years — the composers Messiaen, Ligeti, and Bolcom figure prominently in his performances — but his repertoire also includes the complete Beethoven sonatas, Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes, and Bach’s Goldberg Variations. To celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, in 2020, Mr. Taylor will perform all nine of Franz Liszt’s transcriptions of the Beethoven Symphonies in Boston’s Gardner Museum, as well as a scheduled weekend of concerts in California. Addendum to news release for concert June 16, 2019 May 28, 2019 p. 2 Mr. Taylor has concertized around the globe. His most recent tours were in Korea, China, Singapore, Italy, and Venezuela. In the United States, he has appeared with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the symphonies in Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Christopher Taylor was honored with an Avery Fisher Career Grant, is the winner of the Kapell Competition, Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the Bronze Medal at the Van Cliburn Competition. He is the Paul Collins Professor of Piano Performance at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Performing Arts Center Sunday, June 16 7:00 p.m. LECTURE: REVOLUTIONARY CLASSICS 8:00 p.m. CONCERT: VIRTUOSI OF PIANO AND DANCE .