Boston Court Pasadena | Emerging Artists Online October 18, 2020 Yevgeniy Milyavski, Pianist Gloria Cheng, Mentor (open rehearsal with selections from the program below)
Piano Sonata No.1, Op.12 (1926) Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
24 Preludes, Op.34 (1933) 1 C Major, Moderato 2 A Minor, Allegretto 3 G Major, Andante 4 E Minor, Moderato 5 D Major, Allegro vivace 6 B Minor, Allegretto 7 A Major, Andante 8 F-sharp Minor, Allegretto 9 E Major, Presto 10 C-sharp Minor, Moderato non troppo 11 B Major, Allegretto 12 G-sharp Minor, Allegro non troppo 13 F-sharp Major, Moderato 14 E-flat Minor, Adagio 15 D-flat Major, Allegretto 16 B-flat Minor, Andantino 17 A-flat Major, Largo 18 F Minor, Allegretto 19 E-flat Major, Andantino 20 C Minor, Allegretto furioso 21 B-flat Major, Allegretto poco moderato 22 G Minor, Adagio 23 F Major, Moderato, 24 D Minor, Allegretto
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Selection from Études Book 2 (1988-1994) György Ligeti (1923-2006) 7 Galamb Borong (Melancholic Pigeon). Vivacissimo luminoso, legato possibile
Selection from Études Book 1 (1985) 6 Automne à Varsovie (Autumn in Warsaw). Presto cantabile, molto ritmico e flessibile
Incises (Interpolations) (2001) Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)
Selection from “Two Thoughts About the Piano” (2005-06) Elliott Carter (1908-2012) 2 Caténaires (Curved Shapes)
Selections from “Bagatelles” (2019-20)* David Ghesser (b.1997 ) 10, 11, 12
(*Piano Spheres commission and world premiere)
About the Artist
Born in Mozyr, Belarus, Yevgeniy Milyavskiy began studying piano with his parents at the age of 3. At Age 6, he began formal studies with the Director of the Lycee for Gifted Children, Vladimir Kuzmenko, in the capital of Belarus- Minsk, where he also had an orchestra debut with the Belarus Chamber Orchesrta at age 8. After immigrating to the United States in 1994, Yevgeniy studied under a full scholarship at the Southern California Conservatory of Music, with Grant Horrocks. In 1998, he began his studies with the world renowned concert pianist, Professor Daniel Pollack, continuing to receive a B.M. and M.M. in Piano Performance in his studio, at the USC Thornton School of Music.
Yevgeniy is a winner of numerous awards and competitions, including the 2002 Spotlight Awards at the Los Angeles Music Center, the 2003 NFAA competition in Miami, the 2005 Southern Missouri International Piano Competition, The 2007 Los Angeles International Franz Liszt Competition, the 2008 Jose Iturbi international Piano Competition, and the 2011 ISAM Music Festival Competition in Baden-Wurtemberg, Germany.
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About the Artist, Cont’d
He has received numerous prizes from the Leni Fe Bland Foundation Competition in Santa Barbara, the Young Musicians Foundation, Los Angeles, and the YAPMF Music Festival, Palos Verdes. Yevgeniy is a Liberace Scholar, and a recipient of the ASCAP Lieber & Stoller Award. He has performed in numerous solo, chamber, and orchestra performances nationally and overseas, including Maestro Boris Brott with the New West Symphony, in London at Covent Garden, at the Franz Liszt Museum and Conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, in Germany, Israel, and Belarus. Yevgeniy was a fellow to numerous music festivals, including the Chamber Symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he performed on Radio Suisse Romande, the International Chopin Piano Symposium- Los Angeles, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, AIMS in Graz piano/vocal festival in Austria, the 2006 Tanglewood Music Center Festival and the 2008 Spoleto Music Festival.
Yevgeniy is in high demand as a solo and collaborative artist- with performances of the world premiere of Eric Zeisl’s Biblical Ballet Jacob and Rachel, and Wladyslaw Szpilman’s Concertino with Maestra Noreen Green and the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony at the Ford Amphitheatre, televised on LA TV Channel 36. He has recorded Patricio da Silva’s piano works, has performed for the MTAC Convention, and the Jacaranda Contemporary Music Series.
Yevgeniy continued his musical studies as a D.M.A student in Piano Performance at UCLA, in the studio of Pr. Walter Ponce, the Chair of Keyboard Studies at UCLA, and with Pr. Gloria Cheng, a world-renowned champion of contemporary music. Yevgeniy has often performed with UCLA faculty, including Juliana Gondek, Vladimir Chernov, Movses Pogossian and Doug Masek, while collaborating with singers and instrumentalists as a Teaching Associate to the Vocal Department, and premiering new works by UCLA Composition faculty and students.
Yevgeniy continues his musical career as a performer of classical and contemporary music, for solo piano, as well as chamber and vocal repertoire. He taught at the Santa Monica Conservatory as Head of the Piano Department and Artistic Director, as well as privately, coaching vocalists, and collaborating with composers on performances and records of new works. Fall of 2020, he will record an online piano recital for the Piano Spheres Emerging Artist Concert Series in Los Angeles, USA.
About the Mentor
Grammy and Emmy Award-winning pianist Gloria Cheng has long been devoted to a process of creative collaboration, having worked extensively with such internationally renowned composers as John Adams, Terry Riley, Thomas Adès, and the late Steven Stucky. Ms. Cheng has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and Pierre Boulez, and on its acclaimed Green Umbrella series with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Oliver Knussen. Continued on next page
About the Mentor, Cont’d
She has been a recitalist at the Ojai Music Festival (where she first appeared in 1984 with Pierre Boulez), the Chicago Humanities Festival, William Kapell Festival, and Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. Ms. Cheng inspired and premiered such notable compositions as Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Dichotomie (of which she is the dedicatee), John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction for two pianos (written for her and Grant Gershon), and Steven Stucky’s Piano Sonata. Partnering with composers in duo-recitals, she premiered Thomas Adès’s two-piano Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face and Terry Riley’s Cheng Tiger Growl Roar.
Ms. Cheng received a Grammy Award for her 2008 recording, Piano Music of Salonen, Stucky, and Lutosławski, and a second Grammy nomination for her 2013 disc, The Edge of Light: Messiaen/Saariaho. On screen, Ms. Cheng’s film, MONTAGE: Great Film Composers and the Piano — documenting the recording of works composed for her by Bruce Broughton, Don Davis, Alexandre Desplat, Michael Giacchino, Randy Newman, and John Williams — aired on PBS SoCal and captured the 2018 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award for Independent Programming. Her most recent disc, Garlands for Steven Stucky, is a star-studded tribute to the late composer by 32 of his friends and former students.
After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Stanford University, Ms. Cheng studied in Paris on a Woolley Scholarship and earned graduate degrees in performance from UCLA and the University of Southern California, where her teachers included Aube Tzerko and John Perry. Ms. Cheng now is on the faculty at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music where she has created courses and programs designed to unite performers, composers, and scholars.
You can read more about Gloria online at gloriachengpiano.com.
The piano for this performance has been provided courtesy of Steinway & Sons.