July 2008 Archives

November 23rd, 2008 at 2:30 PM


Southwest Florida Symphony
Michael Hall, Conductor



Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall
Fort Myers, Florida





Program:


Grieg Concerto in A minor Op.16


November 22nd, 2008 at 8 PM


Southwest Florida Symphony
Michael Hall, Conductor



Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall
Fort Myers, Florida





Program:


Grieg Concerto in A minor Op.16


October 24th, 2008 at 7 PM



Chamber Music Concert
Nichols Concert Hall



Music Institute of Chicago
Evanston, Illinois




Program:

Beethoven Piano Trio Op.1 No.1 in E flat major
Schoenfield "Cafe Music"
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No.1 in D minor Op.49



Stephanie Jeong, violin
Si-Yan Darren Li, cello



October 24th, 2008 at 12:15 PM


PianoForte Salon Series
Live on WFMT Radio



Sherwood Conservatory at Columbia College Chicago
1312 South Michigan Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60605





Program TBA

Stephanie Jeong, violin
Si-Yan Darren Li, cello



October 15th, 2008 at 9 PM


The Juilliard School's 2008 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition Winners' Concert Live on WQXR Radio



Paul Hall, The Juilliard School
New York, NY 10023




Program:


Scarlatti Sonata K.492 in D major
Scarlatti Sonata K.141 in D minor
Albeniz "Triana" from Iberia
Chopin Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor Op.39


Dvorak Slavonic Dance Op.46 No.2 in E minor
Dvorak Slavonic Dance Op.46 No.8 in G minor
with Yoonjung Han, piano





September 22nd, 2008 at 7 PM



Harvard Club



35 West 44th Street
New York, New York 10036




Program:



Debussy, selections from Preludes Book I and II
Carl Vine Piano Sonata No.1 (1990)

Chopin Scherzo No.3 Op.39 in C sharp minor
Chopin Impromptu No.3 Op.51 in G flat major
Chopin Etude Op.10 No.1 in C major, No.2 in A minor, No.3 in E major, No.4 in C sharp minor, No.5 in G flat major
Chopin Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise Brillante Op.22 in E flat major



September 14th, 2008 at 4 PM



Royal Lazienki Park




Warsaw, Poland




Program:



Chopin Scherzo No.3 Op.39 in C sharp minor
Chopin Impromptu No.3 Op.51 in G flat major
Chopin Etude Op.10 No.1 in C major, No.2 in A minor, No.3 in E major, No.4 in C sharp minor, No.5 in G flat major
Chopin Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise Brillante Op.22 in E flat major



September 14th, 2008 at 12 PM



Zelazowa Wola



Frederic Chopin's Manor
Zelazowa Wola, Poland




Program:



Chopin Scherzo No.3 Op.39 in C sharp minor
Chopin Impromptu No.3 Op.51 in G flat major
Chopin Etude Op.10 No.1 in C major, No.2 in A minor, No.3 in E major, No.4 in C sharp minor, No.5 in G flat major
Chopin Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise Brillante Op.22 in E flat major


September 13th, 2008 at 6 PM


Frederic Chopin National Institute
Royal Castle




Warsaw, Poland




Program:


Scarlatti Sonata in D major K.492
Scarlatti Sonata in D minor K.141
Debussy, selections from Preludes Book I and II
Carl Vine Piano Sonata No.1 (1990)

Chopin Scherzo No.3 Op.39 in C sharp minor
Chopin Impromptu No.3 Op.51 in G flat major
Chopin Etude Op.10 No.1 in C major, No.2 in A minor, No.3 in E major, No.4 in C sharp minor, No.5 in G flat major
Chopin Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise Brillante Op.22 in E flat major



September 12th, 2008 at 7:30 PM


Opening Concert
27th International Festival "Chopin in Autumn Leaves"
Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra
Adam Klocek, Conductor



Panstwowa Szkola Muzyczna I i II stopnia w Kaliszu
Kalisz, Poland





Program:


Beethoven Concerto No.4 Op.58 in G major

Chopin Concerto No.1 Op.11 in E minor



August 24th, 2008 at 4 PM


Thy Chamber Music Festival




Thisted Musikteater
Thisted, Denmark




Program to include
:

Olivier Messiaen "Quartet for the End of Time"

Tibi Cziger, clarinet
Delyana Lazarova, violin
Morten Zeuthen, cello


August 22nd, 2008 at 7:30 PM


Thy Chamber Music Festival




Musikvaerket
Nykobing Mors, Denmark




Program to include
:

Dvorak Piano Quintet in A major Op.81.

Bence Abraham, violin
Pala Garcia, violin
Torok Matyas, viola
Morten Zeuthen, cello


August 21st, 2008 at 8 PM


Thy Chamber Music Festival




Morup Molle Kro
Bedsted, Denmark




Program to include
:

Olivier Messiaen "Quartet for the End of Time"

Tibi Cziger, clarinet
Delyana Lazarova, violin
Morten Zeuthen, cello


August 20th, 2008 at 7:30 PM


Thy Chamber Music Festival




Viborg Musiksal
Viborg, Denmark




Program to include
:

Dvorak Piano Quintet in A major Op.81.

Bence Abraham, violin
Pala Garcia, violin
Torok Matyas, viola
Morten Zeuthen, cello


August 19th, 2008 at 7:30 PM


Thy Chamber Music Festival




Thisted Musikteater
Thisted, Denmark




Program to include
:

Prokofiev Flute Sonata in D major Op.94

Craig Goodman, flute
August 16th, 2008 at 7:30 PM


Thy Chamber Music Festival




Kirsten Kjaers Museum
Langvad, Denmark




Program to include
:

Prokofiev Flute Sonata in D major Op.94

Craig Goodman, flute

May 23rd, 2008 at 11 AM


The Juilliard School's 103rd Commencement Ceremony
Honoring Placido Domingo, Carmen de Lavallade, Hank Jones, Charles Simonyi, Anna Deavere Smith, Mitsuko Uchida



Avery Fisher Hall
New York, New York 10023





Program to feature a movement of:


Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor Op.34



May 17th, 2008 at 3 PM


Pure Piano Series



PianoForte Foundation
Chicago, Illinois





Program:


Bach French Overture in B minor BWV831
Carl Vine Piano Sonata No.1 (1990)
Ravel Sonatine
Schumann Carnaval Op.9




May 16th, 2008 at 12:15 PM


PianoForte Salon Series
Live on WFMT Radio



PianoForte Foundation
Chicago, Illinois





Program:


Haydn Sonata Hob.XVI/20 in C minor
Ravel Sonatine
Schumann-Liszt "Widmung"
Rimsky-Korsakov-Rachmaninoff "The Flight of the Bumblebee"
Chopin Polonaise Op.53



May 11th, 2008 at 3:30 PM


2008 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival
Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra
Robin Fountain, Conductor



Mendel Center/Hanson Theatre
Benton Harbor, Michgan





Program to include:


Mozart Piano Concerto No.21 in C major K.467




May 4th, 2008 at 1 PM


2008 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival



First Congregational Church
Battle Creek, Michgan





Program:


Bach French Overture in B minor BWV831
Carl Vine Piano Sonata No.1 (1990)
Ravel Sonatine
Schumann Carnaval Op.9



April 29th, 2008 at 7:30 PM


2008 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival



Calvin College Fine Arts Center
Grand Rapids, Michgan





Program:


Bach French Overture in B minor BWV831
Carl Vine Piano Sonata No.1 (1990)
Ravel Sonatine
Schumann Carnaval Op.9



April 28th, 2008 at 3:30 PM


2008 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival



Stetson Chapel, Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo, Michgan





Program:


Bach French Overture in B minor BWV831
Carl Vine Piano Sonata No.1 (1990)
Ravel Sonatine
Schumann Carnaval Op.9



April 26th, 2008 at 8 PM


2008 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival



Goodrich Chapel, Albion College
Albion, Michgan





Program:


Bach French Overture in B minor BWV831
Carl Vine Piano Sonata No.1 (1990)
Ravel Sonatine
Schumann Carnaval Op.9



April 25th, 2008 at 6:30 PM


2008 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival Opening Gala and Dinner



Dalton Recital Hall, Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, Michigan





Program:


Haydn Sonata Hob.XVI/20 in C minor
Ravel Sonatine
Schumann-Liszt "Widmung"
Chopin Polonaise Op.53 in A flat major



April 23rd, 2008 at 6 PM


Chamber Music Concert at American Irish Historical Society



991 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10028





Program:


Schumann Carnaval Op.9
Ysaye Sonta No.3 for solo Violin
Brahms Violin Sonata No.1 in G major Op.78


Sean Lee, Violin


April 22nd, 2008 at 6 PM


Chamber Music Concert



St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University
New York, New York





Program to include:



Olivier Messiaen "Quartet for the End of Time"


Pala Garcia, Violin
Robert Walker-Lacomba, Clarinet
Elizabeth Chung, Cello



March 27th, 2008 at 7 PM


Screening of Tomasz Magierski's "Defining Chopin"



Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York
233 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10016




Program:


Haydn Sonata Hob.XVI/20 in C minor
Chopin Waltz Op.64 No.2 in C sharp minor
Schumann-Liszt "Widmung"



March 6th, 2008 at 8 PM


"New York-Paris-Vienna"

Chamber music concert with students from the Juilliard School, Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Dans Paris, and the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts.



Glaserner Saal/Magna Auditorium at Musikverein
Vienna, Austria




Program to include

:


Faure Piano Quartet No.1 in C minor Op.15




January 19th, 2008 at 8 PM


The Juilliard School's 2008 ChamberFest



Peter Jay Sharp Theater
New York, New York 10023




Program to include:


Brahms Horn Trio in E flat major Op.40.


Pala Garcia, Violin
Sydney Braunfeld, Horn



January 12th, 2008 at 6 PM


2008 National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts Gala



Soho Studios at Wynwood Convention Center
2136 NW First Avenue
Miami, Florida





Program to include:


Chopin Etude Op.10 No.3 in E major
Chopin Etude Op.10 No.12 in C minor "Revolutionary"



December 16th, 2007 at 3 PM


Professional Training Workshops at Carnegie Hall
The Emanuel Ax Workshop / Brahms Sonatas



Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
New York, New York





Program:


Brahms Violin Sonata No.1 in G major Op.78, with violinist Sean Lee
.





December 13th, 2007 at 7:30 PM


Professional Training Workshops at Carnegie Hall
The Emanuel Ax Workshop / Brahms Sonatas



Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
New York, New York



Public masterclass with pianist Emanuel Ax and conductor David Zinman.


Program:


Brahms Violin Sonata No.1 in G major Op.78, with violinist Sean Lee
.



Call her Naomi: Gilmore Young Artist Kudo makes some changes
Kalamazoo Gazette
April 13th, 2008
Elizabeth Clark

 

 

   Savvy followers of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival may think they spy a mistake when they see the name of pianist Naomi Kudo.


   Kudo, one of two 2008 Gilmore Young Artist award recipients (the other is Adam Golka), changed her professional name from Rachel Kudo -- or Rachel Naomi Kudo, which she also has used -- to Naomi Kudo this winter.


   "My parents had expressed that they would like me to maybe use my middle name because that's also my Japanese name," Kudo said by phone from her New York City home. "In the past, I've usually used both names, which is confusing because some people assume because of my ethnicity that I'm half-Caucasian or an Asian-Jewish pianist (she's actually of Korean-Japanese descent) because both of my names are Jewish. They thought it would be easier if I chose just one."


   She expects to answer to both for quite some time.


   "Everybody still calls me Rachel," she said. "I think it's always been my parents who called me Naomi. I'm really happy with anything as long as I can keep doing what I do and keep playing more music."


Recent excitement

   Most recently, Kudo, who attends the Juilliard School in New York City, performed in Vienna, Austria, as part of an exchange program between Juilliard, the National Conservatory of Paris and the University of Vienna for the Performing Arts.

   "There were five musicians each representing the three schools," Kudo said. "They wanted us to get to know each other and to play chamber music together, and we performed a concert in Vienna."
  
   Exploring the city that was such a destination location for baroque bigwigs was "really moving," the young artist said.

 

   "It was such a great experience," she said. "We got to really look around the city, and we also visited a lot of important musical sites: Beethoven's old house, Mozart's old house, the cemetery where Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and all these people were buried."

   Kudo said it was interesting to see the differences between European and American students.


  
"It was really cool that, even though some of the other students didn't speak English very well when we started rehearsal, we got to communicate through our music," she said. "I think that was a common experience for all of us."


   Kudo also describes her Carnegie Hall chamber-music appearance in December 2007 as a career highlight. She appeared with a violinist from Juilliard.


   "We worked on Brahms violin sonatas with Emanuel Ax and David Zinman and also a clarinetist, Richard Stoltzman," she said. "That was like one of the most intense and amazing weeks, because every day we were coaching and playing and training and asking Mr. Ax and Mr. Zinman questions. It was also very touching because these busy and important people were really interested in helping us young artists out. I thought that was such an incredible thing."


Astonishing record


   Kudo's own career certainly qualifies as incredible. The pianist won the 2007 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, was the sole American finalist at the 2005 15th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, earned second prize at the seventh National Chopin Competition (2005) in the U.S., is a 2004 Davidson Fellow Laureate and four-time scholarship recipient from the Chopin Foundation of the United States.

   She said she's thrilled at the possibility of rubbing shoulders with more stars during her Gilmore visit.
 
   "I was thinking of asking (festival Executive Director Dan Gustin) if I could meet Mitsuko Uchida," Kudo said. "She's one of my idols. That would be one thing that would be amazing. She and I are playing a recital on the same day about two hours apart. I was really hoping to make her recital."
 

   Kudo's schedule at the Gilmore includes a slot at the opening dinner on April 25, an Albion College appearance April 26, a Stetson Chapel recital April 28, a Calvin College performance April 29, a Battle Creek performance May 4 and a collaboration with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra in Benton Harbor on May 11.

  
  
Her solo recital performances will feature J.S. Bach's Overture in the French Style in B Minor, BWV 831; Carl Vine's Sonata No. 1; Ravel's "Sonatine"; and Schumann's "Carnaval, Op. 9." The symphonic collaboration in Benton Harbor will feature Mozart's Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467; and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade."


   For her opening dinner set, she said she plans to play short works and transcriptions that are "popular and easy to enjoy," including "The Flight of the Bumblebee."

Gilmore Rising Star executes classics with brilliance, clarity

Kalamazoo Gazette
September 10th, 2007
C.J. Gianakaris


  
An arm of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival is its Rising Stars Recital Series, whereby six to eight top-flight younger pianists offer solo programs each year, spread across the Gilmore's music season. On Sunday evening, the first of four performances in the 2007-08 series that will be held once a month through December, was launched in impressive fashion at the Wellspring Theater. Spotlighted was American-born Naomi Kudo in a demanding and warmly received program displaying her amazing technique and superior interpretative ability. Kudo also happens to be a 2008 Gilmore Young Artist and will perform again at next spring's Gilmore Festival.


   With her parents in the audience, Kudo offered a splendid display of piano artistry. No matter what volume, the evenness of notes in passages was uncanny, with melody always crystal clear. Joined with superlative technical prowess was an intelligent caressing of melodic line in which every note played had significance. An audience favorite was Kudo's crystalline playing of Mozart's Sonata No. 12 in F Major, K. 332. Always true with Mozart's piano music is the need for absolute clarity, and Kudo passed with flying colors. She played its three movements with considered, subdued restraint, fast and forte passages carefully meted out as called for. Cleanly articulated lines were the norm.


   Kudo next turned to Chopin's Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39. Its opening demanded assertive forte octave runs alternating with gossamer sounds created through tinkling notes in the upper treble. Virtuosity dominated in highly dramatic bars, though Kudo could still exhibit sensitivity without eviscerating the music's substance.


   For many the apex of the recital was Kudo's amazing rendition of Chopin's ``Andante Spianato'' and``Grand Polonaise Brilliante'' in E-flat Major, Op.22. Kudo has won numerous Chopin competitions. Now we know why. Every feature of this work was expressed and projected with incredible clarity and nuance. The profusion of chromatic runs and passages were pearly smooth, each note sounding, no matter what tempo.


   She made sense of every passage, regardless of how complex. Hers was, simply, a brilliant performance.


   Carl Vine's 1990 work, Piano Sonata No. 1, offered interesting rhythmic effects. Almost continuous use of sustaining pedal created much of the work's overall aura, though dissonance dominated. The pervasive clatter-bang of the piece shortened audience patience. Kudo prevailed to make some musical sense from the exciting but loud score.


   Closing was Kudo's able playing of Liszt's ``Reminiscences de Don Juan (Mozart), S. 418.'' Obviously Liszt's prime objective was to spotlight the pianist (him), and not the music. Kudo followed Liszt's instructions in a splurge of bombastic runs and trills, picking clean Mozart's bones. Many might have preferred Mozart's music straight.



The Reno Philharmonic scores with the profound and the beautiful and 
Naomi Kudo

Music Reviews
January 15th, 2007
Jack Neal



   Building a program from a semblance of the raucousness of Tin Pan Alley, to the affectingly profound, with lush romanticism sandwiched in between, provides nothing less than a concert recipe for success. It's also a recipe that allows conductor Barry Jekowsky to score once again with accessible and exciting programming, triumphantly performed.

   William Grant Still's "Animato" from his Afro-American Symphony, Edvard Grieg's ultra romantic Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor, and Dmitri Shostakovich's massive and profound Symphony No. 10 in E minor presents an enormous programmatic challenge. It's a challenge impressively managed by the Reno Philharmonic and its conductor Barry Jekowsky.

   Adding to this achievement is 19 year old American pianist Naomi Kudo, who is making her Reno debut with these series of concerts. Before a large and appreciative Sunday afternoon (1/14/07) audience of instant fans at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, this young pianist proves she is a winner in the hard-knock existence of the concert world.

   The Grieg piano concerto is so popular it's rarely heard, which makes it all the more welcome. Kudo provides a technically assured performance with an abundance of lyricism that caresses the concerto's rhapsodic nature from beginning to end. The bravura of the first and last movements, give way to the haunting middle movement that is one of the loveliest slow movements in all of the piano concerto repertory. Kudo is a subtle artist whose impeccable facility never overshadows her gifts for a perfectly turned phrase mixed with elements of surprise.

   We've heard the critical complaint that Grieg could not develop a tune, only compose one. In his A minor concerto he has composed one memorable tune after another. What's not to like and love? Nothing seemed problematic for Sunday's audience. Kudo and the concerto deserved and received a thunderous ovation.

   Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 is the composer's symphonic masterpiece. Few other symphonies have such a shrewd, keen sense of balance from movement to movement. Taken alone, any of its four movements are admirable, but incomplete. Taken together, each plays off the others so well that incompleteness gives way to a completeness of vision that bridges the delicate balance between passion and poise that makes for great writing and the possibilities of a compelling interpretation.

   Jekowsky leads an incisive performance with cool precision and blistering subjectivity. The orchestra rises nicely to the occasion for a flawlessly paced presentation full of operatic lyricism and architectural insight. Jekowsky's is a powerful musical exploration of a work loaded with explorable utterances. How exciting to hear such a definitive performance here.

   How exciting, too, to hear William Grant Still's attractive "Animato" from his Afro-American Symphony. This bluesy, jazzy, thoroughly American work got the treatment from a bluesy, jazzy, thoroughly American orchestra and conductor who know how to get under the skin and into the groove of American music. It's the kind of letting one's hair down, that gives the Still a pulsating reading that turns it into the music that makes everyone dance.