Miami International Piano Festival

Master Series. From Mar 15th through 17th, 2009.  Miami International Piano Festival. Miami EventsThe Miami International Piano Festival is celebrating its 12th Season in 2009.  The Master Series is held in the intimate and acoustically appealing Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center of the Performing Arts every March. This season the festival will continue a tradition started last year by featuring a solo artist in two single-composer recitals in one day. Kemal Gekic, the Croatian pianist who made his U.S. debut at the festival in 1999 and was subsequently selected by FIU as their artist-in-residence, will play Chopin’s 27 Etudes and 4 Ballades on Sunday afternoon, March 15th.  That same evening, Gekic presents the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt as well as the Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178. Gekic’s 1997 JVC recording of the Transcendental Etudes continues to garner critical acclaim, and for very good reasons: not only does Gekic possess a daunting technique, but more important he imbues every piece he plays with intelligence, complete poetic vision and artistic imagination, creating some of the most thrilling interpretations of classical repertoire heard today. Both of these concerts will be professionally recorded for possible release by Video Artists International (VAI).

Italian virtuoso, Francesco Libetta has created a program for Monday, March 16th that was chosen because each of the pieces convey a particular visual image that the composers sought to evoke: Ravel’s deeply impressionistic Miroirs; Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Allegretto alla barbaresca with Arabic overtones of the Barbary Coast; Schumann’s dazzling Fantasiestücke, Op. 12; and Listz’s Faust inspired Bagatelle sans tonalité and Transcendental Etude No. 4 in D minor, inspired by Victor Hugo's dramatically morbid poem “Mazeppa.”

The Master Series concludes on Tuesday, March 17th with a meeting of the minds as four Festival veterans unite for an all Beethoven program that begins with Francesco Libetta performing one of the earliest works, Fur Elise.  He then moves on to the "Pathetique" Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13. Liszt’s transcription of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in D minor for two pianos will be the grand finale to three days of piano treasures. Kemal Gekic returns to the stage with Serbian artist (and former student) Misha Dacic to perform this interesting work that unites two of the world’s greatest classical composers with two masterful pianists.

Miami International Piano Festival
Amaturo Theater at Broward Center for the Performing Arts
201 SW Fifth Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
305.935.5115
www.miamipianofest.com

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Miami International Piano Festival

Master Series. From Mar 15th through 17th, 2009.  Miami International Piano Festival. Miami EventsThe Miami International Piano Festival is celebrating its 12th Season in 2009.  The Master Series is held in the intimate and acoustically appealing Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center of the Performing Arts every March. This season the festival will continue a tradition started last year by featuring a solo artist in two single-composer recitals in one day. Kemal Gekic, the Croatian pianist who made his U.S. debut at the festival in 1999 and was subsequently selected by FIU as their artist-in-residence, will play Chopin’s 27 Etudes and 4 Ballades on Sunday afternoon, March 15th.  That same evening, Gekic presents the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt as well as the Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178. Gekic’s 1997 JVC recording of the Transcendental Etudes continues to garner critical acclaim, and for very good reasons: not only does Gekic possess a daunting technique, but more important he imbues every piece he plays with intelligence, complete poetic vision and artistic imagination, creating some of the most thrilling interpretations of classical repertoire heard today. Both of these concerts will be professionally recorded for possible release by Video Artists International (VAI). (more…)

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Miami International Piano Festival

Through May 11th, 2008.

Miami International Piano Festival. Miami Events
The Miami International Piano Festival, now in its 11th Season, has achieved unquestionable recognition with participants and journalists from all over the world coming to the Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach to experience one of the most compelling keyboard events in the world. (more…)

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