Cleveland Chamber Music Society featured in The Land.

The Cleveland Orchestra isn’t the only organization in Northeast Ohio that’s been making great music for decades.  

Just a few miles east of Severance Music Center, a much smaller but no less determined organization has also been serenading citizens for a long, long time, and attracting committed followers. 

That group? The Cleveland Chamber Music Society (CCMS). 

Once an occasional performance presented by a small band of friends, the series has grown into a pillar of classical music in Cleveland. Indeed, the season now starting marks the group’s 75th anniversary, making it one of the region’s longest enduring musical organizations. 

Read the full article in The Land. here.

Insider Interview with pianist Yukine Kuroki

On October 29, Japanese pianist Yukine Kuroki makes her Carnegie Hall debut with a recital presented by the Dublin International Competition. The program features music by Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Kapustin, Tokuyama, Schumann, Saint-Saëns and Debussy. We spoke to her about the upcoming recital, coming to NYC for the first time, winning the Dublin International Piano Competition and more.

How and when did you first become interested in music? What prompted you to begin playing piano, and when did you know you wanted to pursue a career as a concert pianist? 

I started to play piano when I was 3 years old. Because my mother was a piano teacher, there was a piano in my house. I started so naturally, because this piano was like my friend.

When I was 12 years old, I met my professor, Fumiko Eguchi. I was so thrilled that she really respects music and people. She is passionate and supports me so kindly.

I started to participate in junior international competitions all over the world. I met many amazing young pianists and professors, and I realized how beautiful music is. I wanted to learn more and more, so I practiced so hard every day and now it’s my job. I don’t think of it as “working” when I play the piano. I think I’m so lucky because for me, music is my life and my constant companion. So I’m really enjoying to have many concerts all over the world.

What did winning the Dublin International Piano Competition mean for you and your career? 

I was so thrilled to receive 1st prize in Dublin – it was my dream to win such a famous competition. After that, I won several other competitions but for me, Dublin was my first big win. It’s a really important prize and it has given me more confidence.  

After Dublin, my life has changed. I had many interviews in newspapers, articles and television, and have had many concert requests in Japan and Europe. This season I have several concerts in US and Canada. Thanks to the Dublin competition, I’m having a career as a pianist. 

The Carnegie Hall recital on October 29, 2024 is your first concert recital in the United States. What are you most looking forward to about performing in New York? 

It’ll be my first time to visit New York, so I’m curious how audiences will react there.

I remember performing in Fort Worth, Texas many years ago [as semi-finalist at the Cliburn Junior Competition]. I was thrilled that audiences had so much passion and they shouted ‘bravo’ so much. So I believe that in New York audiences will also be good. And of course I want to go sightseeing!

Tell us about your recital program. What brings these pieces together? 

I love all pieces that I’ll perform. First, Liszt is a special composer for me - when I was 10 years old, I played Liszt for the first time, and immediately fell in love with his music because it encompasses everything. Some people think his music is mainly technical. But I think he has passion, love, respect, a deep story and it’s very lyrical.  

Stravinsky’s Firebird is originally for orchestra, and in Agosti’s arrangement for piano you can hear all the orchestra sounds and colors which tell the story.

About Rachmaninov and Kapustin, it was my dream to play Rachmaninov Sonata No.2 and Kapustin Variations, I especially like its jazz rhythms. I chose Minako Tokuyama’s “Musica Nara” especially because the piece is really beautiful; it incorporates traditional Japanese melodies, evoking a smiling Budda, Japanese temple bells and jazz! How amazing that she mixed Japan and Jazz. I hope everyone will love this piece!

What is the next milestone in your career you’d like to achieve? 

 I’m happy now, so I want to keep my job as a concert pianist. I really love to perform in front of audiences, and I am most happy when I have a lot of concerts to play. I don’t even want to take a rest! 

I want to play some other big repertoire, and I like chamber music, concertos and solo piano music. I also would like to record a CD! I have so many options in front of me, so I want to keep trying everything!!

Insider Interview with guitarist David Leisner

Guitarist David Leisner's new album Charms to Soothe (Azica Records) features rarely heard 19th century gems by Johann Kasper Mertz, Leonard Schulz, Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani, and Giulio Regondi. We spoke with Leisner about the new album, what makes this repertoire special, and his 40+ year career as a composer and guitarist.

Why did you start playing classical guitar? What drew you to it initially, and what made you stick with it? 

My mother was dying for me to play the violin when I was 9 years old. I tried, but just didn’t take to the instrument, sawing away at “Mary had a little Lamb” and sounding awful. So we next gravitated to the guitar, partly because I liked the sound and partly because it was possible to rent one on the way to buying one, so it was economically attractive. I took up folk guitar and played and sang folk songs in many different languages until I started classical lessons at 13, and then I was hooked, though I didn’t give up folk and pop singing until several years later..   

In the liner notes for Charms to Soothe, you write that you created a sonata out of the four pieces by Mauro Giuliani. Why was it important to you to do that?

Those pieces were all from the Op. 148 collection, called Giulianate, which I consider to be among the very best pieces by Giuliani.  I always thought that the first piece in the set, “La Risoluzione” was a little lonely, being in a kind of early Sonata allegro form, but without more Sonata movements to follow it.  When I was assembling repertoire for this album, it occurred to me that the Scherzo, La Melanconia and Il Sentimentale pieces in the same collection, would not only function perfectly as a typical Scherzo movement, slow movement and finale, but were also in compatible keys and shared similar musical material as well. When I played them together, voilà!, it felt just like a Sonata! 

Many listeners think of nearly the entire body of classical guitar music as soothing. What is it especially about the selections on the album that make them “Charms to Soothe”?

Well, that’s a good point, although a lot of early 19th-century guitar music consists of virtuosic showpieces that get the blood boiling. While most of the music on the album is really quite virtuosic, that’s beside the point. This music emphasizes lyricism and soulfulness.

Assuming you've lived with this music for many years, how is your approach and interpretation of them now, vs when you first learned them?

That’s a deep question. Yes, all but the Leonard Schulz pieces are pieces I have lived with for many years. I would like to think that, over the years, I have learned to be more singing in my approach to them and find an ever-greater balance between a sense of structural coherence and beautiful, colorful moments. Also, I have always taken my interpretive cues with this music from the great pianists’ interpretations of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelsohn and Schumann, and I believe that over time, this connection has deepened and become more natural. Schulz was a more recent discovery for me, but we became fast friends. 

Johann Kaspar Mertz wasn’t well known when you began to play his music 40+ years ago. Since that time, you have helped bring his music to the fore. How did you initially learn about Mertz and his compositions, and why do you feel he is an important figure in 19th century music?

I came across Mertz’s music for the first time in the mid-1970s, in the back of a book of late 19th-century music. I had been looking for music of the Victorian era, and that music in this book was OK, but the pieces at the end of the book by this Romantic-era guy that I’d never heard of were a knockout. I realized then and there that finally I had found a 19th-century guitar composer whose music was of a level of compositional sophistication and emotional depth that was on par, or close to it, with the great composers of his era.

You are also a composer. How does your experience writing music influence your skills as a guitarist? 

I have always felt that being a composer enriches your abilities as an instrumentalist, and the same vice-versa. Having familiarity with creating a piece of music from scratch gives you a sense of why one musical event might follow another and makes the whole process of developing an interpretation more organic. It sensitizes you to the emotional weight and meaning of harmony and the essential importance of character and tempo markings, not to mention the significance of nuance and fine detail in shaping an interpretation. Overall, I’d say that being a composer reminds you of the importance of Balance, so that physical/technical limitations or possibilities take a back seat to the more essential matters of the music’s meaning. On the other hand, to take it a step further, being an instrumentalist can help a composer treat seriously the importance of communicating to an audience, as well as the physical requirements and enjoyment of playing an instrument. I love pursuing both disciplines and wouldn’t have it any other way!     

Insider Interview with pianist Sahan Arzruni

Armenian-American pianist Sahan Azruni is in the midst of recording a complete history of piano music from his homeland. The latest edition, “By Women,” (rel. July 26, 2024 by Armenian General Benevolent Union) features music by 8 different women, including 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Kouyoumdjian, and nearly all works are world premiere recordings. We spoke to him about the forthcoming album, his early inspirations, working as a sidekick to Victor Borge, and more.  

What was it about the piano that first attracted you to play it, and what made you want to pursue a career in piano?  

I started playing the piano at the age of four at the encouragement of my maternal aunt who was a pianist and a composer.  When she discovered a superior gift in my “doodling,” she took me, at the age of six, to her Austrian teacher at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory. He agreed to work with me as long as my aunt supervised my practicing. I made my first public appearance before I was five years old. 

It was not practical to make a living playing or teaching the piano in Istanbul. Thus, I entered Robert College to study chemistry. Unfortunately, I failed in English (all classes were taught in English) and I was let go. I then applied to Juilliard School, was accepted and came to New York in 1964. 

What inspired you to create this album?  

I am in the midst of recording the history of Armenian piano music. This is the fourth album. The sponsors asked me to devote this album to the music of Armenian women composers. Feminism is in, I hear! 

What elements – if any – might a listener identify as sounding like it was written by a woman; or sounding like it was written by someone of Armenian heritage?  

There is nothing special about women composers in general. The music is either good or bad. Whether they are composed by men or women, it’s irrelevant. The idea of women creating music was nothing new for me. My aunt was my first piano teacher. Also, I was a close friend of another Armenian woman composer in Istanbul, Koharik Gazarossian. In the States, I became friends with Louise Talma and Miriam Gideon and recorded many of their works. And now this collection. I have found 38 Armenian women composers so far! 

If you had to pick two pieces or composers to highlight for readers, which would you choose and why?  

Alicia Terzian from Argentina is probably one of the most challenging Armenian woman composer. I have recorded almost all her piano compositions. Her works are mostly multi-media. Another woman composer would be Gayane Chebotaryan -- there is a polished finish to her compositions. They are highly pianistic and effective. 

You worked with Victor Borge for many years. How did you first meet him?

In the sixties when I was attending The Juilliard School of Music, to help students to find jobs there was an office named Placement Bureau. In April 1968, through PB I found out that pianist Leonid Hambro was looking for a student to replace him for a week as a musical sidekick to pianist and comedian Victor Borge. Although several students has applied for the position, I was chosen by Victor Borge to work with. There were only 10 days before a week-long concerts in Hamilton, Ontario. 

 What role did you play on stage? 

The half-hour portion I would be involved in not only included new music for two-pianos but also comedic antics with Borge. Borge and I hit it off right away, not only musically and comedically, but personally as well. Without Hambro’s knowledge Borge kept offering me additional dates. (Borge was paying me only 1/5 of what Hambro was charging.) Eventually, I replaced him as Borge’s stage partner. I was associated with Borge on and off until 1986.

 What did you enjoy about this type of work? 

In many ways, my association with Borge was a positive experience for I was exposed to huge audiences. Furthermore, playing some one hundred concerts a year was an immense exposure. And finally, expanding the idea of traditional recital – presenting just music – into music and talking was a unique approach.

 How did working with Borge for so many years inform your career as a recitalist? 

Working with Borge evolved my musical understanding, developed my relationship with audiences, and freed my artistic abstraction.  

Insider Interview with composer Karen Tanaka

Orli Shaham is pianist, narrator, and instructor in a new video series. The Adventures of Anya is a musical fairy tale with music and original story written for Shaham by Karen Tanaka, illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke. Originally published in the Japanese magazine Musica Nova, the series features 22 episodes with Shaham narrating the story, performing the music, and giving lessons on how to perform each of the corresponding compositions. (Full series available on Youtube)

In this interview with Tanaka, the composer talks about taking inspiration for her backyard, collaborating with Shaham and Beeke, and more.

What inspired you to write this story and its music? How did you come up with the idea for the story about Anya and her adventures?

The animals featured in this piano collection - the rabbit, small bird, and squirrel - visit the backyard of my home in Southern California, and they were the inspiration for this collection.  

In March 2021, the Tokyo-based music publisher Ongaku no Tomo commissioned me to compose a series of piano pieces for their magazine Musica Nova. With the series set to begin in June, I had to decide on the subject matter quickly. 

In my previous piano collection, I collaborated with the British picture book illustrator Tiphanie Beeke. When I received the new commission from Ongaku no Tomo, I emailed her again to request illustrations for this collection. After writing a rough story overnight, I sent it to her, and she agreed. Her picture books, filled with charming and adorable illustrations of animals, perfectly matched my ideas. Naturally, the main characters in "The Adventures of Anya" were animals, and I wanted to create an adventurous story infused with fantasy, love, and thrills. Each month, Tiphanie sent me a new illustration, which inspired and influenced my composing. Also, the story developed when I was working with her.

After completing the monthly series with Musica Nova, Schott Music in New York decided to publish "The Adventures of Anya" in two volumes with fully colored illustrations. Project Schott New York has published my recent chamber, orchestral, and choral works.

Tell me about your process collaborating with Orli? How did you adapt the music, knowing that you were writing specifically for her? How did she influence your composition and story?

In May 2021, the Juilliard Pre-College commissioned me a solo piano piece to be premiered by Orli Shaham. During our Zoom meeting that month, I mentioned that I was working on a new piano collection featuring animals and asked if she would be interested. Orli shared that she had a dog named Milo and sent me a picture. After our meeting, the idea of "Orli the Witch" came to mind. I shared a picture of Orli and Milo with Tiphanie Beeke, and she created an adorable illustration. 

Working with Orli Shaham was a delightful and joyful experience. She demonstrated deep insight and wonderfully expressed the composer's intentions through her piano performance. She is a natural storyteller, and her piano playing effortlessly evokes emotions beautifully, which I believe is a rare talent among pianists. Her narration was also incredible.  

 What age level is the music for players? For listeners?

I hope people of all ages will enjoy playing and listening to The Adventures of Anya.

Chou Wen-chung at 100 - concert review

On March 21, 2024 professor Frank J. Oteri brought students from his class “Analyzing and Placing Music in Historical Context” at The New School College of Performing Arts to the Chou Wen-chung Centennial Concert at Miller Theatre in NYC. The students reviewed the concert for an assignment, this is one of those reviews.

Chou Wen-chung Centennial Concert Review

By Jaden Lewis-King
”Analyzing and Placing Music in Historical Context” Spring 2024
Professor Frank J. Oteri | The New School College of Performing Arts

The Chou Wen-Chung Centennial Concert “A Retrospective” on March 21, 2024 at Columbia University's Miller Theatre was a celebration of life, music and legacy. Chou’s music was performed by the Continuum group, Joel Sachs, conductor, which is an ensemble dedicated to the performance of works by live composers. Five different and distinct musical selections and a panel discussion held by his closest friends, historians and family members helped to put his life and legacy into perspective and humanize his music and point of view through firsthand accounts and stories. The panel was a lens which allowed the audience to see Chou’s impact on Chinese and Western music. 

The concert had five musical selections: In the Mode of Shang (1956), Yu Ko (1965), Twilight Colors (2007), The Willows are New (1957), and Ode to Eternal Pine (2009), followed by a repeat performance of In the Mode of Shang to close the concert. These selections highlighted pillar points in Chou Wen-Chung’s music and acted as a timeline for his life and compositional career.

Joel Sachs, an intimate friend and collaborator of Wen-Chung was perfect at leading from a place of tenderness and care and it showed in the response from the musicians right from the opening of In the Mode of Shang. Rightfully so, as In the Mode of Shang and The Willows are New were the foundations of the night. Luyen Chou, one of the composer’s two sons, described them as love songs.  The story however is overshadowed by grief, given that Chou dedicated In the Mode of Shang to his first wife, Katherine “Poyu” Chou, who died within months of their wedding. The work remained unpublished until after Chou’s death and the world premiere of the piece as Chou originally envisioned was given by the Xinghai Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Bing Chen in November 2023. The performance heard at the New York concert was only its second time being heard in its original orchestration (three times total, if you were to count the replay).

One of the main things touched upon on the panel was love being the impetus behind most of his works, and particularly In the Mode of Shang as the depiction of a man in love. For me this also showed the intricacies of Chou and his homogenization of traditional Chinese music and traditional Western contemporary music. What was so effective about most of his orchestration was the small size of the wind section (one player per instrument) which added a layer of transparency to the music. 

The Willows Are New, Chou’s sole piece for solo piano, had no dedication, but during the panel discussion, his son Luyen Chou mentioned it was inspired by his father’s chance meeting with pianist Chang Yi-An, whom Chou wen-Chung would ultimately marry. This composition is inspired by text about bonds and parting ways. It's safe to say that the emotions and symbolisms of this piece to his life and family history are prolific, and it has a nostalgic feel which Sachs enacted well with a lot of pace and emotion. There was a care to his notes and silence wasn't a fear but an ally in his performance. 

Highlights of the concert were some of Chou’s other works: Twilight Colors and Ode to Eternal Pine.  In Twilight Colors, Chou sought to capture the changing skies over the Hudson River, which has been a source of inspiration for many artists. Interestingly enough it brought him back to his past life as an architect where he was able to take artistic inspiration in a visual medium and turn it into the ambient, beautiful soundscape he created in this work. The piece was scored for double trio, and solos by the violin, English horn and cello were stand-outs. Ode to Eternal Pine was composed in the spirit and style of traditional Korean chong ak (upper class/higher class) music and is the only piece Chou composed with an Asian, but non-Chinese, inspiration. The ancient form of chamber music sought to express the range of human emotion inspired by natural phenomena which have inspired East Asian minds for centuries. The emphasis is on the fluidity of the concurrent flow of instrumental voices, characteristic of chong ak, rather than exploitation of novel instrumental colors. This piece was different than all the others in that the percussion (bells, cymbals, chimes, gong, drums) dominated. Although it wasn't my favorite piece its contrast was stark and needed.

The other piece on the program, Yü Ko, showed more of Chou’s interest in ancient Chinese traditions. Translated to “fisherman’s song”, it is a pure example of the tablature notation from the thirteenth century. The notation is similar to that used for lute and modern guitar music which indicates the actual placement of the fingers instead of showing the physical notes. Ending the night with a second performance of “In the Mode of Shang” felt redundant at first but as it went, the lyricism and beauty carried through and was a great way to end all that had been heard leaving nothing more to be desired.

Chou Wen-chung Centennial Concert Review

On March 21, 2024 professor Frank J. Oteri brought students from his class “Analyzing and Placing Music in Historical Context” at The New School College of Performing Arts to the Chou Wen-chung Centennial Concert at Miller Theatre in NYC. The students reviewed the concert for an assignment, this is one of those reviews.

Chou Wen-chung Centennial Concert Review

By Claire Coven
”Analyzing and Placing Music in Historical Context” Spring 2024
Professor Frank J. Oteri | The New School College of Performing Arts

The Miller Theatre at Columbia University was bustling with fans, friends, and family of Chou Wen-chung Thursday evening for his Centennial Concert. Performed by Continuum, led by Joel Sachs, the evening was exciting and enlightening for those who knew and were new to Chou Wen-chung and his music. 

The retrospective opened, and later closed, with the American premiere of In the Mode of Shang, composed in 1956. Continuum filled the stage as a complete ensemble and enraptured the audience throughout the seven-minute piece. One need not read the program notes–although they are illuminating–to appreciate how Chou developed the theme: he seamlessly alternated the melodic line between the entire ensemble and solos, duos, and trios from each section, building and changing the line with each pass. This became a defining characteristic of the work we heard Thursday evening: an avid calligrapher, Chou simultaneously drew melodies from and inspired by ancient Chinese techniques with those of the Western twentieth century, melding them just enough that something new is created while maintaining a distinct deference for each culture. 

Upon the first listen, In the Mode of Shang paints vivid scenes through the solo melody. The discernable sections of the piece were marked by the entire orchestra coming together before returning to solo or small ensembles continuously developing the theme. The final piccolo solo, singing like a bird with unrelenting melodious legato, left us just satisfied enough to end the piece, yet it felt as though the piece could have continued. Continuum’s vivid playing allowed us to experience Chou’s early musical landscape in those few minutes.

Next we heard Yü Ko. Composed in 1965, this piece was perhaps the most traditional in its use of ancient Chinese techniques we heard that evening. Performed by a smaller ensemble led by winds and brass, with piano, violin, and percussion, it was interesting to hear how Chou was able to achieve such authentic ancient Chinese idioms and colors from Western instruments alone. To produce this, he had both the violinist and pianist pluck strings, and had a mute on the trombone to manipulate the sound. Again, the theme was played by few and then all.

The first half of the concert closed with Twilight Colors. Composed in 2007 and scored for a double trio–one with flute, oboe, and clarinet and the other with violin, viola, and cello–this piece consisted of vignettes in four movements and a coda. “A Thread of Light” began the series with a deep cello drone solo that continued to penetrate when the other instruments joined in. “Colors of Dawn” followed without pause, employing both trios in chaotic bowing until they calmly unwound. Next, in “In the Mist,” Chou programmatically writes a thick layer of mist by having the strings repeat narrow, chromatic intervals that the flute and clarinet permeate. In “Mountain Peaks Rising,” the ensemble created a topography with ascending and descending intervals. After playing a chord together, each musician continued to play their own unique theme, creating at once unexpected harmony and juxtaposition. The penultimate movement concluded with a hauntingly beautiful woodwind trio, as if birds were flying out of and around the mountain peaks. “Coda” flourished in a full ensemble sound reminiscent of late-Romantic quartets. 

After intermission there was a panel discussion moderated by Kathryn Knight, music publisher and President of Edition Peters USA from 2019 to 2023, and included Chou’s sons Luyen and Sumin, and former students Lei Liang and Shyhji Pan. They spoke not only of the important mentor that Chou Wen-chung was, but also shared stories of his life that gave new meaning and insight to the pieces performed and his compositional process. Lei Liang said that Chou asked every student “When is a line not a line?” One can hear in his music that he taught by example, constantly asking himself the same question. Shyhji Pan synthesized Chou’s mission and technical philosophy stating that the “Confluence of East and West is what he dedicated his life to,” and that, “...technique lies in delicacy of details, that was consistent throughout his life.”  His sons provided insight about the posthumously-published In the Mode of Shang: Chou wrote the piece in 1956 for his first wife who died a few months after the first partial performance in 1957. Bereaved, this is perhaps why Chou never published this early work, and why works composed after this tragedy reflected his “profound grief.” Chou later married concert pianist Chang Yi-an in 1962. Luyen described that “big leaps of faith defined” both his parents’ lives, and that music saved his father’s life. 

Next we heard Joel Sachs perform The Willows Are New. Composed in 1957, this is Chou’s only composition for solo piano. At once dark with sprinkles of light, Sachs brought the single line to life through subtle and drastic dynamic shifts. After that we heard Ode to Eternal Pine, composed in 2009. Originally composed for an ensemble of traditional Korean instruments, we heard this piece performed on Western instruments. Notably, the piano was played in traditional Western style.  Despite the Western instrumentation, we could hear the inspiration of traditional Korean music in each movement. The ensemble was tight and attuned to each other, maintaining continuity through tough transitions.

Ending the program the way it began, the whole Continuum ensemble came out to play In the Mode of Shang once again. With the information from the panel discussion and from listening to pieces ranging throughout Chou's career, the piece had a new levity to it. This was especially so after Sumin Chou described how his father wrote this piece when he was young and full of hope, and before experiencing the profound grief of the death of his first wife. The ensemble played with a robust and infectious sense of excitement. It was a wonderful way to end a meaningful evening of inspiring music. 

Born in Yantai, China in 1923, Chou immigrated to the United States in 1946 leaving war-torn China to study architecture at Yale. However, it was on the ship that he realized he must pursue his passion for music, and upon arrival, gave up his fellowship at Yale. He subsequently began his music studies with Nicolas Slonimsky and Edgard Varèse in Boston, the latter of whom Chou became closest mentee and lifelong champion. Chou later studied at Columbia University where he became instrumental in the establishment of the Electronic Music Center (later revitalized into the Computer Music Center), the Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music at Columbia, and the US-China Arts Exchange. Not only is Chou the first world-renowned Chinese-born composer, but he is also responsible for the success of the following generations of Chinese composers who he mentored through his US-China Arts Exchange. In his music you can hear the sounds of his childhood in China, adulthood studying with Varèse and other luminaries, and–above all–his dedication to fusing cultures of the East and West in harmony.

Insider Interview with classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang

On April 19, Baruch Performing Arts Center presents classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang in recital. Acclaimed for her “staggering virtuosity,” Ms. Wang is the only accordionist to ever win the Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. Her wide-ranging recital features works by Piazzolla, Bach, Boulanger, Gubaidulina and others. We spoke with her about being a pioneer for her instrument, the differences between classical accordion and similar instruments, and the upcoming program at Baruch PAC. 

What first attracted you to the accordion? 

When I was around five years old, I had a chance encounter with an accordion while watching a classical Italian movie called "Cinema Paradiso" with my parents. The soundtrack immediately caught my attention and I noticed a unique sound that I had never heard before from any other classical musical instrument. I became intrigued and since then, I wanted to learn how to play the accordion.

How did you come to the unusual focus of classical music on your instrument?  Do you think of yourself as a classical musician who plays accordion, or as an accordionist who plays classical music? 

I consider myself a classical musician who plays the accordion. Unfortunately, the classical accordion is not yet commonly recognized in the US. I have noticed that the accordion is generally associated with folk music. However, the classical accordion has the potential to perform many types of music. The main difference between the classical accordion and the regular accordion is the left-hand part. While the regular accordion produces an "Oom-pa-pa" sound, the classical accordion has single tones in the left hand which allows us to perform polyphonic music such as Bach or any great classical composers.

What are the challenges of playing classical music on the accordion? How is your performance approach different from popular or folk music?

Playing the classical accordion can be quite challenging. The right-hand side has 107 buttons while the left-hand side has 120 buttons, none of which are visible while playing. Additionally, the player's left wrist and arm must control the compression and bellows turning. Therefore, there are technically three things going on simultaneously while performing.

Tell us about your instrument. Where's it from? What makes it unique? How long have you had it? 

For almost two decades, my accordion has been with me, its origins tracing back to the picturesque town of Castelfidardo in Italy - the "accordion city" situated along the stunning coast of Ancona. With every passing year, the sound of my instrument only gets better and better.

Pianist Inna Faliks: Insider Interview

The pianist Inna Faliks is gearing up for an action-packed year. Her forthcoming album Manuscripts Don’t Burn (Sono Luminus; rel. May 17, 2024) features world premiere recordings written for her by Clarice Assad, Mike Garson, Ljova Zhurbin, Maya Miro Johnson, and Veronika Krausas. Her memoir Weight in the Fingertips was released October 2023, and has been widely critically acclaimed, and this spring she performs the premiere of a piano concerto by Clarice Assad. We recently spoke to her about the forthcoming album, its connection to a cult Ukrainian novel, and more.

The centerpiece of the concept of your new album, Manuscripts Don’t Burn is the cult novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which the album’s title work by Maya Miro Johnson is based on. What is the significance of the book to you? 

This book is about so many things, and has so many layers. It is, fundamentally, about the power of art to survive, transcend evil regimes, in this case Stalin's totalitarian murderous Soviet Union. It is about censorship, it is also a great love story, a retelling of Faust and the story of Christ, all in one book. It is a book that many Russian speakers are obsessed with.

I first read it at age 10 and brought it with me through immigration. It had been banned in the USSR, and my grandfather had typed it out on his typewriter, a "Samizdat" thing. I had memorized the book, because I read it so many times. It is also a burlesque, magnificently funny and whimsical. It, in some ways, continues Nikolai Gogol's literary tradition, as far as its fantasy elements go. Bulgakov was born in Ukraine, as, of course, was Gogol. 

When at 15, I had won the Illinois Young Performers Competition and played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, they made a short biographical clip about me , and in this clip,  I am reading the book out loud - and also playing Tchaikovsky Concerto # 1, 3rd movement, with Chicago Symphony.  

When my best friend from childhood, Misha, read the book as an adult, he remembered me. That made him want to find me. And now we are married and live in LA with our two kids. When my Mom had a stroke and I flew, during Covid, to help her regain language and movement skills (this was before we found out that she had brain cancer), I read the book to her out loud and she read it back to me.  

A film version of The Master and Margarita will be released in the US year. What do you make of that timing? 

It is completely coincidental but delightful. I had the luck to be at a screening and love what the director Michael Lockshin had done with the film - I think it is the first truly successful screen adaptation of the very complicated material. And, of course, politically it makes a stand. As the book did. 

How does the work by Johnson tie into the overall program of the new album?

It complements the other Master and Margarita piece on the disc - the Suite by Veronika Krausas. Maya's piece is wild, it imagines Margarita, the muse of the Master, in the moment that she has become a witch and is about to meet Woland the devil. The piece uses a lot of extended techniques and has me whisper a phrase from the novel, in Russian. In contrast, Veronika's Suite plays on the Baroque dance suite. It is very elegant, understated, extremely beautiful and evocative, powerful in its contained grace.

You recently premiered a piano concerto by Clarice Assad, called “Lilith” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Lilith is a primordial she-demon, and “The Master and Margarita” is essentially a retelling of Faust. Am I seeing a throughline? (Devil in literature, perhaps? Or, Famous Devils I have known?)

What can I say. Devils are fun! It somehow is a coincidence too, Lilith and Master and Margarita. In the novel, Satan actually saves the main character, the master. And, as Goethe says, "I am that power that always wishes for evil but ends up doing good." Bulgakov really plays on this phrase.

Praise for Orli Shaham's Complete Mozart Piano Sonatas

The internationally renowned concert pianist Orli Shaham released the final two volumes of her multi-year endeavor of recording all of Mozart’s piano sonatas in February 2024. Volumes 5 & 6 of "Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas" (Canary Classics CC24) is available on CD and on digital streaming and download platforms. The complete box set with all six volumes will be released in spring 2024. 

The set has been incredibly well received across North America, Europe and the United Kingdom. Here’s what the critics are saying:  

“A top-tier and consistently satisfying Mozart cycle.” – International Piano  

“a significant recording achievement for Mozarteans ... brilliantly handled ... it is time to mark this as one of the significant releases in the Mozart discography and now one can even listen through all the sonatas in chronological order, though the pairings throughout the series have been intelligently determined and help each sonata stand on its own well. Highly Recommended!" – Cinemusical 

"Shaham’s artistry... easily holds its own alongside some of my favourite modern-day Mozart sonata cycles" - Gramophone 

“Shaham avoids the common pitfall of painting Mozart's portrait as a dainty child prodigy, and instead brings out his free and youthful spirit, an essential feature of his melodic lines. ... Under her hands, this is not simply the music of cute little powdered-wig Wolfgang, but the music of a master of the keyboard who knew exactly how to make the piano sing and dance.” – Classical Music Sentinel 

"a remarkable set" - Classical Candor 

Visit OrliShaham-Mozart.com for streaming audio, liner notes, purchase links and critical acclaim.  

Orli Shaham interview on WWFM's "A Tempo"

Pianist Orli Shaham released the final volumes of her 6-disc recording cycle of Mozart’s complete piano sonatas in February 2024. In a recent interview with WWFM’s Rachel Katz, Shaham speaks about the recording project, Mozart’s longevity, championing women composers, and commissioning new works. Below are some excerpts from the interview.  

To listen to the full 30-minute interview “Finding Tradition and Cutting Edge in Mozart,” stream the program at WWFM.org.  

On Mozart:  

I spent a lot of time in my formative years studying historical musicology, especially with the wonderful Mozart scholar Elaine Sisman at Columbia University. It's something that one talks about with music of the Enlightenment and the logical distinctions between ideas that was so important at the time. Mozart’s sonatas were used as teaching tools to show not only how to play a sonata, but also how to decorate and embellish a sonata, as any good pianist was expected to be able to do on the spot.  

They really span his adult life, the piano sonatas. It's a wonderful way to look at Mozart’s entire development as a mature composer. He also had the incredible experience of living in a time that was the most exciting moment for keyboard instruments. The instruments couldn't possibly have been changing more. The invention of a pedal that you don't have to whack with your knees completely changed how he could sit at the keyboard, the kinds of sounds he could make, and the imagination that he could pour into it. He was clearly so inspired by these changes.  

On commissioning new works:  

I'm always thinking about the next project I'm doing with a living composer, and the next project I'm doing with a no longer living composer. This season I'm playing a new piano concerto which my husband, conductor David Robertson, wrote for me. I've also been working a lot with the composer Karen Tanaka. We premiered a piece of hers at Juilliard Pre-College last year, and I'm premiering another work of hers in April 2024.  

I really think the composers should be as free as possible to be creative and come up with whatever makes their heart excited. It's very important for a composer to write what they love, and so you get to know their writing. Once that happens, you have some idea that you can trust them, but you never know what's going to come out. 

On Clara Schumann and other overlooked composers:  

In the last couple of years, I've become obsessed with Clara Schumann, a woman not only worthy of our admiration, but also worthy of great study. She is a special, influential person in the whole of music history. She shaped at least two generations of pianists, and had a teaching legacy that lasted into a very, very long old age. As many as a third of Europe's pianists came to study with her. It's an enormous legacy for piano and pianism and how to interpret music at the instrument.  

In conjunction with these Clara Schumann-based programs, over the pandemic I discovered Amanda Röntgen-Maier. She composed a number of incredible chamber works, including a violin sonata, which I just think is the cat's pajamas. I'm thrilled that every violinist I have played it with says, “Where has this piece been all my life?” They're all putting it into their repertoire permanently. How wonderful for us that we live in a time when we can discover these overlooked composers. 

Listen to the full interview at wwfm.org 

Chromic Duo Insider Interview

On March 5, Baruch Performing Arts Center presents Chromic Duo. Blending classical music, keyboards (including toy piano) and electronics into compelling genre-fluid performances and installation the duo - Lucy Yao and Dorothy Chan - will perform music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Andy Akiho, Maurice Ravel and more. We spoke to them about their upcoming program, pushing genre, experimenting with multimedia, and more!

Classical Music Communications: How did you meet, and what prompted you to join together as a duo? 

Lucy Yao: We met in a hallway! I saw Dorothy carrying this huge case of what looked like a piano, except it was shrunken down. And from that day on, we started to ask ourselves, “why not?” and started to experiment with whatever instruments could make sound. From toy pianos, to electronics, to other art forms that weren’t as familiar to us, but could help us express ourselves, and collaborate to explore new ideas, like dance, film, and technology.

Dorothy Chan: Curiosity and our openness to experimentation really brought us together. In our journey we’ve found that the core of what makes us want to create and connect to the people and community is to look further inside. To find the little moments, the joys, the reckonings, and really capture and remember the importance of them. 

CMC: Why toy piano? What intrigues you about it? How do you manage the contrast in timbre and volume in a duet with toy piano and grand piano? 

DC: Did you know that toy pianos could be made out of a variety of materials, resulting in very different sounds and timbre? Metal rods, hollow rods, glass bars even (in the very early days), plastic hammers vs. wood hammers…It’s fascinating! The toy piano first captured my attention when I realized how this “toy” is considered an instrument and that there are numerous pieces written just for it. I was playing a lot of contemporary classical at the time, and discovering the toy piano was such a joyful moment — to see ‘serious’ music made on this ‘non-serious’ instrument, and how it breaks through traditional expectations and creates an accessibility through curiosity. 

LY: That is what’s really exciting for me! The fact that you can reimagine the things that you would find in your everyday life, into new possibilities. With that, what else can be reimagined into new possibilities? What other things might we have overlooked in our everyday lives? How can we see things in a new light? 

It’s these kinds of questions that guide us in our work -  it could be anything from a performance, to an installation, to community engagement, where we find real joy and meaning in collaborating and listening to the stories of the communities we work with, and reimagine empathy and curiosity together. 

CMC: Electronics are a mainstay of your programs. How do you create these sounds, and how are they incorporated with the sound of the pianos? How much improvisation is involved?  

Chromic Duo: We started experimenting much more with electronics when the pandemic hit. We realized the limitations posed by the pandemic could actually be a place of opportunity for us to expand. We found that with electronics, as well as technology, we could tap into a different way of telling stories. Just like our soundwalk “Listen to Chinatown”– we interviewed mural artists, small business owners and community members in Chinatown, and integrated their stories to the work using spoken words and poetry, bringing users to behind-the-scenes stories, inspirations, and even food recommendations. This work also exists as a concert piece “Homecoming”, where we program for concert hall goers, revealing hidden stories that deserve to be heard on platforms that traditionally do not include them.  Storytelling never fails to be the heart of our work, and through that, we can reshape and rethink conversations to make them as accessible as possible to reach a wider spectrum of audiences.

CMC: The program also includes one of your own compositions. Tell us about this work, and about your composition process as a duo.

Chromic Duo: “From Roots We Carry” explores the complex intergenerational legacies that live inside of us. We interviewed community members and asked them - What do you carry? What have we inherited through familial bonds from the past generation? What are the legacies that we want to keep, and what are some that we want to shed? 

We collaborated with artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya to create a monument and performance ritual, which invites audiences to reflect on their own bonds with their past – both the gifts given to us by our ancestors and the heights and weight of those expectations we feel obligated to reach - and to choose what we want to keep carrying, and what to leave behind. Trailer linked here.

CMC: This concert is part of a larger series that Baruch College has started since just last October. You are also Artists-in-Residence at the Silberman Residency where you will talk to students majoring in a huge variety of fields, who are curious about your process. Can you tell us about how you are approaching engaging with the students? And how does your creative process link to that? 

Chromic Duo: When we first started working together in 2019, we struggled for so long to “define ourselves”, as musicians and artists. Music school, especially, has taught us to internalize a rigid way of thinking– you’re either this or that, successful or not, musician or composer– when it’s really not only about those labels. 

We’ve since broken out of those labels, these boxes, and in our work, you can see that it expands from events like a concert, that is accessible and meets audiences where they are at, to interactive installations focused on student health and wellness (recently at Purdue University), to Augmented Reality soundwalks– the medium and genre are always changing and flexible. But one thing we do want to make clear, in both our creative process, and in our engagement with the students at Baruch, is that you can rely on collaboration – you don’t have to be everything. You also don’t have to be just one thing. We believe that it’s super important to acknowledge that your voice is something that can be heard and celebrated. 

The timely significance of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2

On Wednesday, December 13, 2023, the pianist Orli Shaham joins members of the Vancouver Symphony (USA) for a concert of chamber music at the First Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, WA. Ms. Shaham, the Artist-in-Residence at the VSO has programmed works by Mozart and Poulenc alongside the Piano Trio No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Orli Shaham tells us how this program is especially relevant as awareness of anti-Semitism around the globe is acutely heightened. She writes:

In Shostakovich’s memoir, Testimony, the composer condemned anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and said this about Jewish music:

I think, if we speak of musical impressions, that Jewish folk music has made a most powerful impression on me. I never tire of delighting in it; it’s multifaceted; it can appear to be happy, while it is tragic. It’s almost always laughter through tears. This quality of Jewish music is close to my ideas of what music should be. There should always be two layers in music. Jews were tormented for so long that they learned to hide their despair. They expressed despair in dance music. All folk music is lovely, but I can say that Jewish folk music is unique.

Ian MacDonald, in his biography The New Shostakovich, wrote: “Horrified by stories that SS guards had made their victims dance beside their own graves, Shostakovich created a directly programmatic image of it in the Trio's final movement.”

“I can't think of a more appropriate work for the current moment,” says Orli Shaham. “Please join us for a performance of Shostakovich's Second Trio, Poulenc's remarkable Sextet and Mozart's breathtaking and tragic Sonata in E minor for violin and piano this Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, WA with the wonderful members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.” Details and tickets