Tri-C Classical Piano Series

“Late Night with Leonard Bernstein” — a conversation with his daughter Jamie

by Jarrett Hoffman

Jamie Bernstein In a year when arts organizations across the globe have looked back on the life of Leonard Bernstein, it’s easy to lose sight of what his centennial might mean to one of his own children.

Jamie Bernstein will give a personal look at the maestro, composer, pianist, and father in “Late Night with Leonard Bernstein” this Sunday, May 6 at 2:00 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium, as part of the Tri-C Classical Piano Series.

“It provides an all-around portrait of my dad, which you wouldn’t necessarily get in a more traditional concert of his works,” Jamie said during a phone interview. “As I say in my narration, it’s like a guided tour inside my father’s insomniac brain. And it has some fun surprises in it too.”

[Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: Lise de la Salle at CMA (March 18)

by Nicholas Stevens

Active on the international piano scene for around a decade, Lise de la Salle continues to rise. In a recital for the Tri-C Classical Piano Series this week, she explored one of the fundamental elements of the human condition, often invoked yet seldom considered in depth: love. At the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium on March 18, though de la Salle often explained to the audience the reasoning behind her programming choices, these commentaries proved less powerful than the combination of her musical and gestural sensibilities. [Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: a conversation with Lise de la Salle

by Mike Telin

Life is busy for Lise de la Salle. The French pianist is currently on a six-week North American tour which has included stops at New York’s Town Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and the Detroit Institute of Arts. “It’s a long tour,” the 29-year-old said by telephone from Dallas, where she was performing Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony. “But concerts like these more than make up for it.”

On Sunday, March 18 at 2:00 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium, the Tri-C Classical Piano Series will present Lise de la Salle in a free program that is all about love.

“I call it my transcendental love program,” the pianist said. “It’s a selection of diverse pieces that reflect the many stages of love, from the happy life and the peaceful love that you find in Schumann’s Widmung and Frühlingsnacht, to the dramatic and dark death in Wagner’s Isoldes Liebestod. And Schumann’s Fantasie in C, especially the first movement, is a ‘love scream’ from Robert to Clara — how deep the emotions are, but this is impossible, tortured love because of Clara’s father.” [Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: Roberto Plano (Oct. 15) & Awadagin Pratt (Nov. 12) at CMA

by Daniel Hathaway

Italian pianist Roberto Plano, who won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2001, returned to open the Tri-C Classical Piano Series in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday afternoon, October 15. His arresting program of music by Liszt, Piazzolla, Villa-Lobos, and Ginastera culminated in the premiere of his own solo arrangement of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. [Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: twenty minutes with Awadagin Pratt

by Jarrett Hoffman

On Sunday, November 19 at 2:00 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium, the Tri-C Classical Piano Series presents Awadagin Pratt in a free concert of works by Brahms, Beethoven, J.S. Bach, Lera Auerbach, and Franck.

Winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1992 and an Avery Fisher Career Grant two years later, Awadagin Pratt has given recitals at Lincoln Center, performed with the New York Philharmonic, and has taught piano at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati since 2004.

He’s also familiar with both Pennsylvania Avenue and Sesame Street: he played at the White House three times across the Clinton and Obama years and appeared on that PBS favorite in 1998 to share a piano with an eight-foot, two-inch yellow canary. [Read more…]

Roberto Plano to open Tri-C Classical Piano Series October 15

by Daniel Hathaway

Plano-Roberto After Roberto Plano won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2001, he returned to his native Italy to teach and concertize. On Sunday, October 15 at 2:00 pm, Plano will revisit Cleveland to open this year’s Tri-C Classical Piano Series in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art with a free concert of music by Liszt, Villa-Lobos, Ginastera, and Gershwin.

A year ago, Plano accepted a position at Boston University, and he and his wife and three daughters moved to the United States. In a telephone interview from Boston, Plano noted that the transition has been both difficult and rewarding. “I knew the United States very well, but I never lived here for more than a couple of weeks at a time,” he said.

[Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: Jon Kimura Parker at CMA (April 2)

by Daniel Hathaway

Last heard in Cleveland in September as one-third of the Montrose Piano Trio, pianist Jon Kimura Parker returned for a solo recital on Sunday, April 9 in Gartner Auditorium of the Cleveland Museum of Art. His unusual, brilliantly played program, “Passion and Pictures,” concluded the tenth season of Tri-C’s Classical Piano Series. [Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: Gavin George at CMA (Feb. 12)

by Daniel Hathaway

Granville, OH native Gavin George first appeared on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series in November of 2014 at the age of eleven. He returned to Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday afternoon, February 12, now thirteen, several inches taller, and even more mature and nuanced in his playing than before — and before was jaw-droppingly impressive. [Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: Stanislav Khristenko at CMA (March 6)

by Daniel Hathaway

Tri-C’s excellent Classical Piano Series brought 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition gold medalist Stanislav Khristenko back to Cleveland for the 3rd and final recital of its 9th season. His captivating program of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Samuel Barber, Ernest Bloch, and Igor Stravinsky drew a sizeable crowd to Gartner Auditorium on Sunday afternoon, March 6. [Read more…]

Tri-C Classical Piano Series: Zsolt Bognár at CMA (Feb. 7)

by Daniel Hathaway

In his first local, full-length recital in a decade, Cleveland pianist Zsolt Bognár opted for musical intelligence and deep emotional content over keyboard pyrotechnics. On Sunday afternoon, February 7 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Bognár gave probing performances of music by Franz Schubert, Edvard Grieg, and Franz Liszt to a good-sized audience that obviously included many of his local fans. [Read more…]