* This information is provisional and will be updated regularly *
The Music Theory Department in association with the Piano Department presents:
A day of dialogue and virtuosity focusing on
the music of Frédéric Chopin
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Hatch Recital Hall
Eastman School of Music
Exploration of the intimate connections between performing and analyzing music, drawing on modern communications to reach not only across stages between student and expert, but also
across the virtual world.
all times approximate~
Guests include~
John Rink, Director of the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice; Professor of Musical Performance Studies at the University of Cambridge; Editor, The Complete Chopin: A New Critical Edition
Andrew Ball, Piano Professor, Keyboard Faculty, live from the Royal College of Music
Eric Clarke, Heather Professor of Music, University of Oxford, live from the Royal College of Music, London
David Kopp, Associate Professor of Music, Composition and Theory, live from Boston University
Vanessa Latarche, Professor and Head of Keyboard, live from the Royal College of Music
Boaz Sharon, Professor and Chair of Piano at Boston University, live from Boston
Christopher Wilson, Professor of Music at the University of Hull, live from the University of Hull
Young pianists from Boston University, Eastman School of Music, the University of Hull, and the Royal College of Music
Moderator: Jonathan Dunsby, Professor of Music Theory, Eastman School of Music
Performers~
(From Boston: Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat Major, Op. 61)
Anna Arazi is a winner of a number of Israeli competitions, including the Calmi Piano Competition (Jerusalem, 2006; 2008), “King’s Way” Competition (Ashdod, 2008) and the Piano Concerto Competition (Jerusalem, 2008). She has taken part in masterclasses with John O’Conor, Oxana Yablonskaya, Victor Rosenbaum, Vladimir Viardo, Jose Ribera, Boris Berman, Grigory Gruzman and others. Ms. Arazi has won scholarships from the America Israel Cultural Foundation, the Danish-Israeli Studies Foundation in memory of Josef and Regina Nachemsohn, the Golda Meir Scholarship, the Lions Scholarship and the Scholarship of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Ms. Arazi frequently performs as a soloist as well as a member of chamber ensembles. Among her recent engagements is a performance with the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva orchestra under the baton of Maestro Doron Salomon.
Born in Russia, Ms. Arazi began playing piano at the age of 5 at the Ural College ofMusic. In 1997 Ms. Arazi immigrated to Israel with her family and, after her military service, continued her studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where she completed her B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees with Prof. Isser Slonim, Prof. Zelma Tamarkin Slonim and Prof. Asaf Zohar. Ms. Arazi began the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance in Boston University in the fall of 2011 under the tutelage of Prof. Boaz Sharon.
(From London: Mazurkas Op. 17)
Marek Bracha was born in Warsaw, Poland and began playing the piano at the age of 7. Marek attended the prestigious Z. Brzewski Music High School for talented students, studying with Teresa Manasterska. In 2005 Marek commenced his piano studies in the Frederick Chopin University of Music in Warsaw under the tutelage of Teresa Manasterska, Alicja Paleta-Bugaj and Joanna Ławrynowicz. He is also a graduate with distinction of Masters of Music degree at the Royal College of Music where he worked with Kevin Kenner. Currently he is on Artist Diploma course at the RCM where he studies piano with Vanessa Latarche and fortepiano with Geoffrey Govier.
Marek Bracha took part in many international music festivals such as: La Folle Journée – Chopin Open in Warsaw, II J. Waldorff Summer Festiwal in Radziejowice, Poland, 65. International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdroj, Poland, 44. Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk, Poland. In 2000, Marek was invited to perform a series of recitals in Hannover, Germany in the Polish Pavilion at the World EXPO exhibition. In 2005 he represented Poland again during another edition of the World EXPO in Aichi, Japan where he gave solo performances.
In December 2010 Marek Bracha performed in National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, China on a gala concert – official closing celebrations of the Chopin’s Year 2010. In May 2011 he opened a series of piano recitals in Żelazowa Wola. F. Chopin’s birthplace. He also gave a special concert in Chopin’s Museum in Warsaw for the King and Queen of Sweden.
Marek Bracha received a scholarship from the Polish Children’s Fund (2004 and 2005). He is also a recipient of Polish Government scholarships from the Ministry of Art and Culture (in 1997 and 2005) as well as the Prime Minister’s scholarship (2003). In 2009 he was awarded a grant by the St Marylebone Educational Foundation in London. In 2010 he received an Award founded by PRO POLONIA FOUNDATION as well as he became a scholar of “O lepsze Jutro” Foundation in Poland. In January 2011 he received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture in Poland as a part of “Youth Poland” programme.
Marek has won some prestigious piano competitions including: Second Prize (First was not awarded) at International Chopin Competition in Marianske Lazne (2010), Czech Republic, Second Prize and special prize of “Chopin Szymanowski” Foundation at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Szafarnia (2003). Marek was one of four pianists who represented Poland in second round of International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in October 2010.
Marek has given solo recitals throughout Europe including performances in Poland, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, France, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Libya and Albania.
In September 2011, thanks to the scholarship awarded by the Worshipful Company of Musicians in London, he became a Junior Fellow in Royal College of Music.
Marek Bracha is represented and recommended by Ludwig van Beethoven Society in Poland.
(From Eastman: Polonaise in F-sharp Minor, Op. 44)
Pianist Chiao-Wen Cheng was born in Taiwan. She has performed as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Taiwan. She is a member of the award-winning Argos Trio. She has appeared as a soloist with Fort Worth Symphony and Taiwan Shin-Min Orchestra. She has also won numerous piano competitions, including First prize Winner in the Piano Texas International Academy and Festival Concerto Competition (2010); First prize in the Cliburn/McElroy/Dayas/Gorno Scholarship Competition (2004, 2006); First prize in the National Talented Music Students Competition in Taiwan (2000).
Ms. Cheng began piano lessons with her aunt at the age of four. She completed her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a student of Frank Weinstock where she received Van Cliburn Scholarship, and her Master’s Degree at Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University as a student of Benjamin Pasternack where she received full. Chiao-Wen has performed in master classes by Armen Babakhanian, Hung-Kuan Chen, Gwhyneth Chen, Misha Dichter, David Finckel and Wu Han, Claude Frank, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Nina Lelchuk, Robert MacDonald, Steven Mayer, John Owings, Victor Rosenbaum, Ann Schein, Sontraud Speidel, Rita Sloan, and Vladimir Shakin.
Ms. Cheng is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree at the Eastman School of Music where she studies with Barry Snyder.
(From Eastman: Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27 No. 2)
Anna Maimine started studying piano at age 4 with Natalya Dolenko at the Gnessin School for Children in Moscow, Russia. At age 12, Anna came to Rochester, NY where she continued her studies at the Eastman School with Gary Fisher, Alla Kuznetsov, Natalya Antonova, Nelita True, and Douglas Humpherys. Anna graduated from the Eastman Community Music School with an Honors Diploma in Piano and a Certificate of Merit. During those years she was a prize winner of the SUNY-Geneseo Young Artist Competition, the Junior All-Star MTA Piano Competition and the Arco and Fortissimo Chamber Music Competition. Anna received honorable mentions at the Kilian Competition, and Ithaca College High School Competition and was a finalist of the Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition.
Most recently Anna has garnered prizes at the Moulin d’Ande Annual Concerto Competition in France, the Annual 1000 Island’s International Young Artist Competition, the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition, and the Empire State Piano Competition. In 2011 Anna was a national finalist at the MTNA Young Artist Competition. She has performed at multiple venues throughout New York State including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. In 2007 Anna performed the inaugural concert for Classical Pianists of the Future series at the Tri-Cities Opera House in Binghamton, NY. She also participated in the premiere of an award-winning chamber music composition by Michael Lee through the Rochester Chamber Music Society. Anna also performed solo recitals at the Second Sunday Series at the Phelps Mansion, in Binghamton, NY and Music for a Summer’s Eve series in Geneva, NY.
Anna holds a Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music, and is currently pursuing her Doctorate as a student of Professor Douglas Humpherys.
(From London: Preludes, Op. 28)
Indonesian born pianist Maria Setiadi is pursuing her Masters of Music studies at the Royal College of Music with Prof. Nigel Clayton, supported by the RCM Scholarship and Henry Wood Trust Award, Indonesian Beasiswa Unggulan, the Seary Charitable Trust, the Leche Trust, and the Craxton Memorial Trust. She gained her Bachelors degree at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore with first class honours, where she studied with Albert Tiu.
Besides enjoy performing as a soloist or chamber musician, she also actively explores different ways of music making to reach more people with her music, within or beyond the stage. Recently she was awarded 2nd prize at the RCM Beethoven Competition 2011 and High Commendation at the Hastings Concerto Competition 2011.
Biographies~
Andrew Ball is recognised as one of the outstanding British pianists and teachers of his generation. He studied at the RCM with Kendall Taylor as well as taking a First in Music at Queen’s College, Oxford.
He plays a large repertoire in which contemporary works and chamber music have always had an important place. He has given recitals of Ives and Busoni at the Wigmore Hall, performed Messiaen’s Couleurs de la Cite Celeste at the Henry Wood Proms and gave the British premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Piano Sonata at the Bath Festival. He has worked closely with many composers including Michael Tippett whose piano sonatas he has frequently performed as a cycle.
A dedicated teacher he gives masterclasses internationally, most recently in New Orleans, Dresden, Hong Kong, Dartington, and at the course for young Spanish pianists in Lucena, Andalucia. He is regularly on the juries of international competitions, most recently the New Orleans and the Anton Rubinstein. He was Head of Keyboard at the RCM from 1999 to 2005. Last season’s engagements included Stravinsky’s Les Noces with Gergiev at the Barbican.
Eric Clarke is Heather Professor of Music at Oxford, and Fellow of Wadham College. He has published widely on various issues in the psychology of music, musical meaning, and the analysis of pop music, including Empirical Musicology (OUP 2004, co-edited with Nicholas Cook), Ways of Listening (OUP 2005), The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music (CUP 2009, co-edited with Nicholas Cook, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson and John Rink), Music and Mind in Everyday Life (OUP 2010, co-authored with Nicola Dibben and Stephanie Pitts), and Music and Consciousness (OUP 2011, co-edited with David Clarke), and is currently working on a monograph entitled Musical Subjectivities, also for OUP. He was an Associate Director of the AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM) and is an Associate Director of the successor AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (CMPCP; 2009-14). He is on a number of editorial boards including Music Perception, Musicae Scientiae, Empirical Musicology Review, and Radical Musicology, and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2010.
Jonathan Dunsby graduated from Oxford University, and as a piano student of Fanny Waterman was an international prizewinner who became active as a collaborative pianist, principally for violinist Vanya Milanova. Founding editor of the journal Music Analysis, he taught at King’s College London and, more recently, SUNY University at Buffalo as Slee Professor of Music Theory. In 2007 he was appointed professor at the Eastman School of Music and has chaired the world’s biggest theory department since 2008. His last two books have been Performing Music: Shared Concerns and Making Words Sing: Studies in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Song. Recent writings have included research into Barthes’ ‘grain of the voice’, contemporary approaches to music theory pedagogy, and interpreting Scarlatti.
David Kopp is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Boston University School of Music. He is the author of Chromatic Transformations in Nineteenth-Century Music (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Recent publications include chapters in Rethinking Schumann (Oxford University Press, 2011), Riemann Studies (OUP, forthcoming), and a volume devoted to Olivier Messiaen (Ashgate, forthcoming). He is the current chair of the Performance and Analysis Interest Group of the Society for Music Theory. As pianist he has performed extensively as soloist and chamber musician in the US and abroad, and has recorded for the New World, CRI, and ARTBSN labels
After studying at the Royal College of Music and completing her training in the USA and Paris, Vanessa Latarche was awarded many scholarships and prizes from international competitions. She has performed as a soloist with international orchestras and those in the UK including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, working with many leading conductors.
Vanessa’s recital work has taken her to Europe, USA and to the Far East, as well as many festivals within the UK, including Cheltenham, Harrogate and Huddersfield. Her interest in Bach led to a performance of the complete 48 Preludes and Fugues at the Lichfield International Festival in 1992, the performances being given over four consecutive evenings.
She has broadcast for over 30 years for BBC Radio 3 and has also broadcast extensively on the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4. She has been a juror for international competitions in Serbia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong and has adjudicated the national keyboard final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, which was broadcast on BBC television. In 2007 she was an advisor to the BBC TV programme “Classical Star”.
Since September 2005 she has been Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music having been previously a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music for fourteen years where she was made an Honorary Associate in 1997.
Vanessa frequently travels to give masterclasses, not only in UK conservatoires and specialist music schools, but also to such institutions as Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, Tokyo College of Music and China Conservatory Beijing, Seoul National University.
With many international piano competition prize-winners amongst her students, Vanessa was nominated for the FRCM, Fellowship of the Royal College of Music, for outstanding services to music which was conferred on her by HRH Price of Wales in May 2010. Most recently, in September 2011, Vanessa was appointed to the role of Personal Chair at the RCM, which has given her the title of Professor of International Keyboard Studies.
John Rink directs the £2.1 million AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice, which is based at the University of Cambridge in partnership with King’s College London, the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway, University of London, and in association with the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
He is one of four Series Editors of The Complete Chopin – A New Critical Edition, and directs two other research projects: Chopin’s First Editions Online (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council) and Online Chopin Variorum Edition (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation). He was an Associate Director of the AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM), and he currently chairs the Steering Committees of the AHRC’s ‘Beyond Text’ and ‘Landscape and Environment’ Strategic Programmes, in addition to serving on the AHRC’s Advisory Board. He sits on the editorial boards of Music & Letters and Musicae Scientiae, is on the Advisory Panels of Music Analysis and Musica Humana, and has served on the AHRC’s Peer Review College. He is Professor of Musical Performance Studies and a Fellow of St John’s College.
He studied at Princeton University, King’s College London, and the University of Cambridge, where his doctoral research was on the evolution of tonal structure in Chopin’s early music and its relation to improvisation. He also holds the Concert Recital Diploma and Premier Prix in piano from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
He specializes in the fields of performance studies, theory and analysis, and nineteenth-century studies, and has published six books with Cambridge University Press, including The Practice of Performance: Studies in Musical Interpretation (1995), Chopin: The Piano Concertos (1997), Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding (2002), and Annotated Catalogue of Chopin’s First Editions (with Christophe Grabowski; 2010). He is also a co-editor of Chopin Studies 2 (with Jim Samson; 2004) and the Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music (with Nicholas Cook, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson and Eric Clarke; 2009).
Boaz Sharon is Professor of Piano and Chair of Piano at Boston University and Director of the Young Artists Piano Program at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sharon studied there with Emma Gorochov, and from the age of 13-19 with Stefan Askenase–famed interpreter of Chopin and Mozart–in Brussels, Belgium. He later pursued his piano studies in the US with William Doppmann and with Leonard Shure.
Sharon is a recording artist for Nonesuch, Hyperion, Arcobaleno and Unicorn-Kanchana Records. His record release of piano works by the French composer Charles Koechlin was cited as among the best recordings of the Year by Newsweek Magazine.
Among concerts given have been performances in the Taipei National Performing Arts Center, Taiwan, Steinway Celebrity Series, London, Phillips Collection and National Gallery, Washington, D.C., Liszt International Piano Festival, Rio de Janeiro and the Chapelle Historique Piano Series, Montreal.
Before his present position as Chair of the Piano Department at Boston University, he was Pianist-in-Residence at Duke University, and Professor of Piano at the University of Florida. He is a frequent judge at competitions including the Rudolf Firkusny International Piano Competition, Prague, the Liszt International Piano Competition, Moscow, and the Jaen International Piano Competition in Spain. During 2010 he also judged international piano competitions in Serbia and in Sweden. In 2012 he will be on the jury of the Emil Gilels International Piano Competition, Odessa, Ukraine.
Having founded and then directed the Prague International Piano Masterclasses for 13 years, he is also on the artist faculty of the Ruza International Piano Festival in Russia, and was on the faculty of the International Certificate for Piano Artists (sponsored by the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot, Paris).
He is first-prize winner and gold medalist at the Jaen International Piano Competition, Spain, and received the Jubilee Medal from Charles University, Prague. Since 2010 he is Artistic Advisor for the Bergamo International Festival in Italy.
Sharon is Honorary Fellow at Charles University, Prague. In 2009 he was appointed Visiting Professor at the China Conservatory in Beijing.
In recent years Sharon has given a recital and orchestral tour of 13 concerts in Russia from the Far East to Moscow. In 2010 he was on the artist faculty of the International Piano Academy at Seoul National University, South Korea. During 2011-12 Sharon will present recitals at the Beijing Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, Ruza International Piano Festival, Russia, the Nordic Piano Festival, Sweden, Yamaha Hall, New York City and at the Bergamo International Festival, Italy.
Christopher Wilson is one of the world’s leading Shakespeare music scholars. His latest book, Shakespeare’s Musical Imagery (2011) investigates categories and thematics in musical metaphor and contextual reference throughout the plays and poems. His Music in Shakespeare (London and New York, 2005), is the most comprehensive study of all the musical terms found in Shakespeare’s complete works and is one of the most significant Shakespeare music publications for 30 years. In addition to articles, reviews, etc. in various publications world-wide, Christopher wrote the Shakespeare entries in the New Grove Dictionary of Music (2001) and the Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992); he was the music consultant for the permanent exhibition at the Globe Theatre in London; and he was the UK research associate for the vast Shakespeare Music Catalogue project based in Canada and published by Oxford University Press in 1991. He is an internationally recognised scholar of early modern English music/words and early modern English music theory with research specialisms in Campion, Dowland, Rosseter, Danyel, Coprario, Byrd and other composers and poets of the English Renaissance. Further research activity includes 19th-century British music/poetry, 20th-century English lyric romanticism, music analysis, and baroque performance practice. He has served on the Council of the Royal Musical Association, has lectured in France, UK, USA and Canada and has broadcast on various topics on BBC Radio 3 and Swedish National Radio. As a practitioner, he is an oboist, keyboard player and conductor.
Acknowledgements~
Jonathan Bowman, Administration
Andrew Green, Director, Concert Operations, Eastman School of Music
Douglas Humpherys, Chair, Piano Department, Eastman School of Music
Helen Smith, Director, Technology and Media Production, Eastman School of Music
