Give Me a P-I-A-N-O
If you love a piano (Irving Berlin), you’re going to love
what’s on the calendar during the coming month.
There’s Lang Lang and Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, “Pianopalooza” and the "Bearcat Piano Festival" at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 with Sergei Polusmiak and the Northern Kentucky University Philharmonic at NKU.
French-born Thibaudet, a Cincinnati favorite, will perform Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5 with the CSO led by guest conductor Stéphane Denève (also French) at 7:30 p.m. April 12, 8 p.m. April 14, and 2 p.m. April 15 at Music Hall. The program, dubbed “The French Connection” (what else?), also includes “Le tombeau de Couperin” and “La Valse” by Maurice Ravel and the Symphony No. 3 by Albert Roussel. Tickets begin at $10. Call (513) 381-3300 or order online at www.cincinnatymphony.org
Pianist Lang Lang, one of the three creative directors guiding the CSO this season, returns for his second and final residency with the orchestra the first week in May (he performed Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the CSO in January). The Chinese born superstar will raise the roof at 8 p.m. May 4 and 5 at Music Hall with the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Prokofiev. The CSO will be led by guest conductor Long Yu, one of China’s foremost conductors (chief conductor of the China Philharmonic and music director of the Shanghai and Guanzhou Symphonies). Also on the program are Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique,” and the Internet Symphony No. 1, “Eroica,” by Tan Dun.
Tan’s cyber-symphony is not really a symphony, but a four-minute piece composed for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra (see New York Times, April 16, 2009). As such, it ties in with the second aspect of Lang Lang’s residency, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Lang Lang YouTube Piano Competition. To enter, student pianists ages 8 to 16 are invited to upload videos up to ten minutes in length of themselves performing a single piece or a movement from a larger work onto YouTube. The videos should be titled “CSO & Lang Lang, Look at Me!” There is an online submission form, to be completed by parents or guardians of the contestants, at www.cincinnatisymphony.org/YouTube.
A panel of judges comprising pianists Michael Chertock, chairman of the CCM piano department and principal keyboardist of the CSO; Sandra Rivers, professor of collaborative piano at CCM (accompanying); and Janelle Gelfand, classical music writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, will select ten finalists. Lang Lang will name three winners to participate in a master class with him May 5 at Premier Pianos in West Chester.
The purpose of the master class is two-fold, said Lang Lang. “I love to inspire young people to learn the piano. When I was a child, I was inspired and encouraged by many great masters. Also, there are many students who want to improve their playing skills. I’m trying to help them in both technique and musicality, so I’m doing as much teaching as I can.
“Music education is one of the basics of education for human beings,” he said. “I think it would be good to set up classical music courses in elementary and high schools, and parents should encourage their kids to learn classical music.”
Why utilize the Internet? “The mechanism of Internet dissemination is important for classical music. Many musicians sell music online, too. It seems hard to live without Internet nowadays,” Lang said.
As for the screening process for the master class, “we’re not just looking for the ten most accomplished players,” said Chertock. “We’re looking for a wide variety of ages, backgrounds and approaches to playing. We want to present Lang Lang with a diverse menu to choose from. If somebody doesn’t get chosen, we still may think they are an awesome pianist.”
Deadline for submissions is Friday, April 20.
Tickets for Lang Lang’s CSO concert begin at $10, and are available by calling (513) 381-3300, or online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org
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There will be piano power to spare at CCM in April, with the 7th annual “Pianopalooza” at 7 p.m. April 15 in Corbett Auditorium, and the Bearcat Piano Festival, April 12-14 in Robert J. Werner Recital Hall.
Created in 2005 as a fund-raiser for the CCM piano department, “Pianopalooza” – this year entitled “Pianopalooza VII: Fingers to Heaven” -- involves “pretty much all of the piano faculty,” said Chertock, including himself, Awadagin Pratt, Elizabeth and Eugene Pridonoff, James Tocco and also Rivers. “We have occasionally had special guests (one year it was Bengals offensive line coach Paul Alexander, who began studying piano with CCM pianist Alfred Mühlböck after sitting in on one of his daughter’s piano lessons). This year, Frank Weinstock, former interim dean of CCM and former head of the piano department, is going to give a farewell performance.”
There will be four Steinway grand pianos on the Corbett Auditorium stage (CCM is an all-Steinway school, having purchased 165 Steinways in 2008, the largest unit purchase in Steinway history). The program -- still being finalized when Express went to press -- will include Schubert, Gershwin, and a surprise, “mega-encore, with as many people as possible participating,” said Chertock.
“Pianopalooza” is a highly anticipated event for the piano faculty, he said. “It’s so wonderful so see everybody sharing the stage in a collegial manner, and it’s a lot of fun. I think it’s the most fun we have the whole year.”
Last year, all the proceeds from “Pianopalooza” went for Japanese tsunami relief, said Chertock. “This year our coffers are low, and the money will be used to fund guest master classes, the Bearcat Piano Festival and student travel to competitions.”
Tickets for “Pianopalooza” are $15, $10 for non-UC students, free for UC students. Call (513) 556-4183, or visit http://ccm.uc.edu/boxoffice.html.
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The Bearcat Piano Festival was founded in 2010 by artist-in-residence Pratt. Like “Pianopalooza,” this year’s festival will honor Weinstock, many of whose former students are traveling to Cincinnati for the occasion. Several of them will perform a recital dedicated to Weinstock at 7 p.m. April 14 in Werner Hall. There will be master classes by Thibaudet and Natalya Antonov. All events take place in Werner Recital Hall and are free.
The festival will open at 7 p.m. April 12 with a recital by Pratt, who will perform Claude Debussy’s Etudes. At 7 p.m. April 13, there will be a recital called “CCM Piano Stars,” performed by students of the piano faculty. Expected to perform on the April 14 recital dedicated to Weinstock are former Weinstock students Lei Weng, Robert Auler, Stephen Pierce, Esther Wang and Timothy Lovelace. (Lei Weng and Pierce are faculty members at the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley. Auler, Esther Wang and Lovelace are on the faculties at the State University of New York at Oswego, Gustavus Adolphus University and the University of Minnesota, respectively.) In addition to those named, “plenty of Frank’s students are coming to town who are not going to perform,” Chertock said.
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There’ll be keyboard excitement in Kentucky, too, this month, with pianist Sergei Polusmiak, distinguished-artist-in-residence at Northern Kentucky University, performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the NKU Philharmonic led by Frank Restesan at 8 p.m. April 24 in Greaves Hall. The concert, entitled “Welcome to Russia,” also includes the Symphony No. 2 by Alexander Borodin. Admission is $5, $3 for students at the door. There will be a concert by students of Polusmiak and NKU piano professor Diana Belland, featuring works from the baroque to the 21st century, at 8 p.m. April 20 in Greaves Hall (free).