First, a very Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Hana Matsuri, Baisakhi...a happy Spring to everyone! We don't have Crocus in Miami, so I took a picture of Iris in my garden, the Greek goddess of the rainbow, which she used to travel down to earth with messages from the gods....
The National Endowment for the Arts has accepted the Dranoff Foundation as a grantee for our big community focused project, Piano Slam!
This project was started last year and has become part of the Signature Series of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. This year, we have obtained a sponsorship by CA and thus are able to include the entire Dade County public school middle and high school level via the school system's student webportal.
Now some not so wonderful news - the Executive Board of the Foundation has decided to postpone the 12th International Two Piano Competition to 2012. This was a very painful decision, since the Competition is the raison d'etre for the Foundation. Time after time, events outside of our control affected the course of our plans. The Board does not feel we are in the position to produce the
Competition in the manner and to the standards we hold ourselves to. Nonetheless, we are proceeding with plans for concerts in the 2011/2012 Season. Details to be revealed later.
Below, you have a chance to finally listen to some of the pieces recorded at the February 11 concert by Daniele and Davide Trivella and the Bergonzi Quartet. We hope to be able to have them in a downloadable version and as CD's sometime later in the year.
Lastly, and not related to Dranoff matters: I am reading Thar Carhart's "The Piano Shop in the Left Bank." Anyone with an interest and a love for this magnificent instrument will thoroughly enjoy this book. "Its the ultimate expression of one strand of our mechanically clever culture joined to our specific specific notion of music based on the diatonic scale. It's great genius is to translate the merely mechanical into the realm of music."
Enjoy!
Gabriele Fiorentino
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Listen to live recordings of the concert with Daniele and Davide Trivella and The Bergonzi Quartet on February 11 at the University of Miami Gusman Hall. The first half of the concert was devoted to duo pianism: works by Sollima, Trovesi, Donizetti and Trivella; the second half to a transcription for four hands of Giovanni Sgambati's Piano Quintet No. 2, with the Bergonzi Quartet.
Sgambatti, Piano Quintet no.2 third movement
Piazzolla, Tango, part 1
Piazzolla, Tango, part 2
Sollima, Subsongs, Moderato
Trovesi, Hercab
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CONTENT
| WHAT IS GOING ON IN MIAMI - Events of some of the groups and organizations we have a close relationship with....read more
TWO PIANO MUSIC WORLDWIDE - This offers a list of performances by Dranoff laureates, solo and duo.....read more
PIANO SLAM - About our community program that has taken on a life of its own...read more
CUBAN ART MUSIC - There exists in Ibero-America an art-music of
great quality and transcendental importance..read more.
NEWS - About "our" duos, of course...read more
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 WHAT IS GOING ON IN MIAMI
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Adrienne Arsht Center
Dranoff concerts and events offered by a group of organizations and presenters we at The Dranoff have shared performances with.
Bass Museum
12/3/09 - 5/30/10 - Where Do We Go From Here? La Coleccion Jumex
3/13 - 6/27 - Mika Tajima, "The Double"
until May2 - the Cabinet, an ongoing dialogue
4/30 - opening "The Egyptian Gallery"
2121 Park Avenue, Miami Beach. Bass Museum
Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery
4/10 - 6/30 - The Constructive Elan, works by Burgos/ Chilindron/Costa/Duenos/Espinoza/Gigli/Lacarra/Minoliti/Pereda/ Tiscornia and many more
2630 NW 2ND. Avenue. Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery
APRIL
4/17 - St. Martha's Concert Series - Chopin National Gold Medalist. 4pm. 9301 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami. St. Martha's
4/20 - Coral Gables Music Club - Angelica Sganga performs works by Albeniz, Granados and Liszt, plus other members will play two piano works by Milhaud, Barclay Allen and Khachiturian. 11am. Steinway Gallery, 4104 Ponce de Leon Blvd. Coral Gables.
MAY
5/2 - Friends of Chamber Music: Kalichstein, Takezawa, Phelps, DeRosa. 8pm. University of Miami Gusman Concert Hall, 1314 Miller Drive, Coral Gables. Miamichambermusic
Our first collaboration with the Bergonzi String Quartet in the February 11 concert will hopefully lead to many more. Make sure to listen to the Sgambati movement above. Bergonzi String Quartet
Last season, we had a wonderful series of joined performances with the Atlantic Classic Orchestra, and Maestro Stewart Robertson. Please check their season at Atlantic Classical Orchestra
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TWO PIANO MUSIC WORLD WIDE
|  Avery Fisher Hall
2010United States4/21 Avery Fisher Hall, New York Philharmonic, Maestro Gergiev. Stravinsky Festival. Maxim Mogilevsly and Svetlana Smolina. New York PhilharmonicRussia4/14 Orchestrion Concert Hall, Moscow. Organized by the Moscow Philharmonic Duo IM. Duo IMGermany"Weltklassik am Klavier - Bolero - Klavierduos der Romantik!" Works by Schubert, Grieg Mendelsohn-Bartoldy, Ravel: 4/9 Hildesheim, 7pm 4/10 Stadtoldendorf, 5:15pm 4/11 Oeynhausen, 5pm 4/18 Remscheid-Lennep, 5pm 4/25 Oldenburg, 5pm Cara Hesse & Laura Pauna. Duo Hesse & Pauna Weltklassik am KlavierCara and Laura were among the semifinalists in the 2008 Dranoff International Two Piano Competition. Injury prevented them for coming to Miami. They are now at the prestigious Musikhochschule Hannover in Germany.4/20 Hagen. Detlev Glanert. Philharmonic Orchestra Hagen,Maestro Ludwig. Duo d'Accord4/24 Oberalteich. Saint Saenz and Hertenstein. Duo d'AccordAustria4/25 Oesterreichischer Rundfunk 2, 6:25pm, airing of "My Home is My Castle", of Duo Trivella meeting with composer Ernest Rubin de Cervin. Japan4/4 Izumi Hall, Osaka. Concert. Duo Deu'or4/21 Yamaha Hachinohe, Aomori. Concert. 1030am. Duo Deu'or5/15&16 Sunport Hall, Takamatsu, Kagawa. Concert and Master Class. Duo Deu'or5/23 Oak Hall, Fukuoka. Concert and Master Class. Duo Deu'or |
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By the time you read this, we will be in the midst of Piano Slam Vol II. Duo Antithesis, winners in the 2003
Competition, traveled from London to perform for 11 Dade County public
schools over a period of two weeks.
The concept is one of cross-pollination of music and words, in other words of collaboration.
This extends to the physical aspect of the project: The Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts has funded the expansion of our live concerts to additional schools.
Steinway of Coral Gables has generously supported this project by availing to us two Steinway concert grands. Movers manhandle two grand pianos in and out of each school, and Franco Turcci, Mastertuner, tunes those pianos. Each and every day, sometimes twice per day. If Dranoff were about flutes and lutes, this would be infinitely easier!
Part of each concert is a workshop with one of several regional spoken word artists, Deborah Magdalena, Summer Hill Seven, Lela Lombardo and Ray Dominguez, who work with the students on conceptualizing and writing poetry.
In addition, we are online for all Dade County public school middle and highschool students via their internet portal. This is possible due to our corporate sponsor - Computer Associates or CA - which produces security programs. Please take a look: our banner is part of the sequence of banners on the homepage: Dade Schools PortalThis link takes the students and parents to a landing page which offers
- a video of the 2009 Piano Slam performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center,
- an interview with the Pulitzer Prize winning composer William Bolcom (subject: Creativity),
- an interview with McArthur Genius Award winner, poet Campbell McGrath (subject: Write a Poem),
- readings of poetry by Miami Heat star James Jones and the celebrity DJ Irie,
- a performance by Duo Antithesis of the Bolcom piece which is the base of the poetry competition,
- and a key for students to enter their poems.
This goes before close to 200,000 students and their parents.
Poems are collected and will be juried beginning next week. Then, on May 8th, there is a workshop for all the winning students on how to perform their work on a big stage together with other artists.
The Concert on May 12th will showcase all the winning students in performing their poems on the stage of the Knight Hall of Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts. The concert will begin with a performance by the US born piano duo Susan and Sarah Wang, winners in the 2008 Dranoff International Two Piano Competition, and build into a collaboration with the students, spoken word artists Lela Lombardo and Summer Hill , plus DJ Brass King.
The VIP reception at Bin 18 on Biscayne Boulvard after the concert will give you a chance to meet all
the artists, plus the Artistic Advisors Deborah Magdalena, Mecca aka
Grimo and Jeroen Van Veen.
Tickets for the concert are free, but there is not admission without a ticket. Tickets for the concert plus VIP reception are $100 per person.
Order Tickets
The Piano Slam logo is by Ashleigh Rahm. We want to thank our advertising agency, Costa IMC, for running a Facebook competition for the logo. Ashleigh won an IPod Touch.
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| CUBAN ART MUSIC
By Velia Yedra
It can be stated that there exists in Ibero-America an art-music of great quality and transcendental importance. Despite the fact that a series of circumstances have stood in the way of the recognition and full appreciation of this concert music, the interest for it continues to grow. This music had remained neglected until quite recently, yet much of this prolific repertoire is still not studied , published or performed.
During the colonial period, religious music was taught in the Latin American countries. Some of the early Creole composers wrote polyphonic music. In Cuba, during the nineteenth century, symphonic works were produced in the style of Haydn, but this music plagued by European influences lacked an identity. The emergence of 'art music' with its own personality is a more recent phenomenon of the last eighty years. The Latin American creators awakened to a national conscience after the nineteenth century independence wars.
It is a fact that the vast musical folklore of Ibero-America nourished itself, mostly from Hispanic and African influences. That is the case specifically of Cuba. In recent years, authentic multiform Cuban popular music, namely, son, rumba, bolero, conga etc., has received an overwhelming attention from audiences and world media. This explosion of the popular music of Cuba has somehow contributed to establish a confusing equation, that is, the term Cuban music= popular music, therefore almost denying the existence of Cuban Art Music.
Without a doubt, Cuban composer Julian Orbon is one of the great figures in 20th century Cuban Art music. He has been defined as "the most genuine Spanish-American composer", a critical perception based perhaps on the unique way in which the elements from these two cultures are syncretized in his work. His musical legacy transcending Cuban or Spanish nationalism is universal in its scope. As is the case of many other relevant Cuban composers, Orbon's music was not performed in the island following his exile. However, before his death in 1991 his works had been performed in the great music capitals of the world to audience and critical acclaim.
A visionary group of performers should be credited for their extraordinary work of research and performance in the field of Latin American music in the 1990's. The late conductor Eduardo Mata, who recorded the entire symphonic output of Carlos Chavez and Julian Orbon, was one of the strongest proponents of Latin American classical music
until his untimely death in 1995.The Latin American String Quartet was showcasing and recording the music for that genre. In Miami, concerts were held in tribute to Orbon, Heitor Villalobos and Chavez that offered some Florida premieres of works by these composers, including works for piano and orchestra and two-piano music.
The Yedra- Chruszcz Duo began a cycle of Cuban Art Music that has included works by 20th century Cuban composers such as Julian Orbon, Aurelio De La Vega, Amadeo Roldan, Alejandro Garcia- Caturla, as well as 19th century music by Ignacio Cervantes, Manuel Saumell, Jose White, Guillermo Tomas and many others. A considerable discography by several distinguished artists was also an accomplishment of this period, deserving a separate essay.
I hope that this article will shed some light on a vast repertoire that encompasses symphonic, chamber, choral and instrumental music as well as an extensive catalogue of piano music.
Bibliography Yedra,Velia. "Julian Orbon: A Biographical and Critical Essay" (Graduate School of International Studies-University of Miami, 1990) Coral Gables, Fl.
"Orbon, Julian". Contemporary Composers. Brian Morton ed., (London: St.James Press, 1992)
Program Notes-Cuban Art Music Concert ICCAS-U.M.,2000. Program Notes-"Adios a Cuba: Velia Yedra Plays Ignacio Cervantes",2002
Cuban-American pianist Velia Yedra has concertized
internationally, both as soloist and chamber music performer, in particular with her husband violinist Bogdan Chruszcz as
the Yedra-Chruszcz Duo.
As a pianist, author, professor and lecturer, Yedra has placed
emphasis on the promotion of the music of Spain and the Americas. She gave a first rendition
of Julian Orbon's Partite No.
4 for piano and orchestra in Florida in 1992. Velia also recorded the
complete volume of Dances by Ignacio Cervantes titled Adios a Cuba.
She currently serves on the Artistic
Advisory Boards of the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Cuban
Museum and
Dranoff Two Piano Foundation.
Yedra Chruszcz Duo
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| Listen to the Concerto Grosso for String Quartet and Orchestra by Julian Orbon. 1. Movement
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NEWS
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The "Twins of the Piano" Francesco & Vincenzo De Stefano recently won the first prize at the international Nikolai Rubinstein Competition of Chamber Ensembles and String Quartet at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, held from 22 to 28 March 2010.
The final was a recital of all Russian Music: their interpretations of the 2nd Suite op. 17 of Rachmaninoff and Le Sacre du Printemps of Stravinsky won over a unanimous jury and thus earned them the first prize of 200.000 Rubles and concerts in Russia for the year 2010-2011 (the first concert is scheduled for 6 September 2010 in Moscow).
The Jury: Tigran Alikhanov ( Russia), Jania Aubarikova ( Kazakhstan), Augustinas Vasiliauskas (Lituania), Bogdan Kuakowsky (Poland), Elena Semishina (Russia), Elena Semirova (Russia), Andrei Shislov (Russia), Keng Zhou (Cina).
CONGRATULATIONS!
Another award by the 2008 International Perrenoud Foundation Music Competition in Vienna brought with it this live recording of Liszt's Rèminiscences de Don Juan and Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps on 16 October 2008 at the Boosendorfer Hall in Vienna. It will be distributed by Sony Classical.
Duo De StefanoRecital in Vienna
The duo Shinichiro Kato & Kuni Seo have moved from Munich to Tokyo in August of last year. They just played the "Concert for 2 pianos and orchestra" by Peter Eotvos in Suntory Hall together with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra. It was Japanese premiere. (Suntory Hall is the most authoritative Hall in Japan, like Carnegie Hall.)
Starting on April I, Shinichiro becomes a lecturer in 2 colleges of music in
Tokyo. In June they will go to California to play and togive a master class. ("Unbelievable! We must teach Americans in English!")
An example of Peter Eotvos' work:
Peter Eotvos: Shadows (1995), 1st movement
Duo Genova & Dimitrov recently played at the Radio SWR International Pianists Concert
Series in Mainz (Germany).
The German Rhein Zeitung in Mainz appraises the Duo's recital at the completely
sold-out Frankfurter Hof concert hall as "Fascinating play...
Inflammable!". The Allgemeine Zeitung journalist adds: "Elegant and
playfully easy... Passionate!" The recital program, which included
Chopin's B minor Sonata op.35 in the almost apocryphal arrangement for 2
pianos by Camille Saint-Saens, as well as further works by Saint-Saens,
Gershwin, Copland and Bergmann was celebrated by the audience with
standing ovations and never ending bravos.
Listen to Marcel Bergmann's "Urban Pulse", a Dranoff Commission for the 2005 Competition, and the Chopin Sonata arranged by Saint-Saens:
Genova & Dimitrov play Bergmann
Genova & Dimitrov play Chopin
Named "Artists of the Year 2001", Aglika Genova & Luben Dimitrov are the Artistic Directors to the 12th Dranoff International Two Piano Competition. Genova & Dimitrov
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About The Dranoff
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The Dranoff was founded in 1987 with the mission to advance two piano music and its artists. Since then, we have contributed 11 new compositions to the literature, and have been a career stepping stone for dozens of piano duos worldwide.
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