January 26, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Maggie Estes, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
mestes@cliburn.org, 817.738.6536 (o), 817.739.0459 (c)
Fort Worth, Texas, January 26, 2012--The
Cliburn at the Modern series welcomes pianist Anthony de
Mare to the Modern Art Museum of Fort
Worth on Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 2:00
p.m. Considered one of the world's foremost champions of
new music, he will present a program of works from his latest
endeavor, "Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim ," a
landmark project for which he commissioned 36 of world's best
contemporary composers to create solo pieces based on the Stephen
Sondheim song of their choosing. Highlighting the power and
complexity of Sondheim's unique style, de Mare's Fort Worth
performance will feature works by William Bolcom, Kenji Bunch,
Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Fred Hersch, Ethan Iverson, Gabriel
Kahane, Ricardo Lorenz, Paul Moravec, David Rakowski, Steve Reich,
Eric Rockwell, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. Tickets are $25
for general admission seating and can be purchased by calling the
Performing Arts Fort Worth Box Office at 817.212.4280 or online at
Cliburn.org.
Supporting new works by composers of all generations and styles
has been central to Mr. de Mare, and over the course of this career
he has commissioned and collaborated with many of the world's most
esteemed musical artists. He has earned a strong reputation as a
performer of American avant-garde music and has been described as
an "amazing artist who must be doing for contemporary piano
literature what the Kronos Quartet has done for the contemporary
string quartet" (UW Gazette, Toronto). His ability to
connect with audiences and create engaging programs led the New
York Times to declare that he has "transformed the recital
format." Mr. de Mare's concerts, lectures, and master classes in
collaboration with The American Piano, have made him
familiar to audiences across the country, and he has also
collaborated and performed with the Lark Quartet, the Bang-On-A-Can
All Stars, Meredith Monk/The House, and the Chamber Music Society
of Lincoln Center, among many others.
For his latest project, "Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim," Mr. de
Mare has enlisted 36 of the most highly-regarded emerging and
established composers to reinterpret the songs of renowned Broadway
composer Stephen Sondheim for solo piano. Exclusive new works from
Steve Reich, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Mason Bates, Gabriel Kahane,
Tania Leon, and Mark-Anthony Turnage, among others, bring the songs
of the musical theater legend into the concert hall. To date, the
"Liaisons" project has been performed to critical acclaim at The
Banff Center, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and the
Portland Piano International Festival.
Mr. de Mare has been the recipient of numerous prestigious grants,
including awards from the Greenwall Foundation, National Endowment
for the Arts, the Rudin Foundation, and The Promise of Learning.
Prior to debuting under the auspices of Young Concert Artists in
1986, Mr. de Mare was awarded First Prize and the Audience Award at
the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in 1982 and
The International Competition for Contemporary Piano Music in 1982.
He is currently a professor of piano at Manhattan School of Music
and New York University.
Mr. de Mare's Cliburn at the Modern program will include:
William
Bolcom
A Little Night Fughetta (after "Anyone Can Whistle" and
"Send in the Clowns")
Ricky Ian Gordon
Every Day A Little Death from A Little Night
Music
Gabriel Kahane
Being Alive from Company
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Pretty Women from Sweeney Todd
Ricardo Lorenz
The Worst [Empanadas] in London from Sweeney
Todd
Fred Hersch
No One is Alone from Into the Woods
Paul Moravec
I Think About You after "Losing My Find" from
Follies
Steve Reich
Finishing the Hat from Sunday in the Park with
George
Eric Rockwell
You Could Drive a Person Crazy from
Company
Kenji Bunch
The Demon Barber (A Fantasia on "The Ballade of Sweeney
Todd") from Sweeney Todd
Ethan Iverson
Send in the Clowns from A Little Night
Music
David Rakowski
The Ladies Who Lunch from Company
Jake Heggie
I'm Excited. No You're Not. (after "A Weekend in the
Country") from A Little Night Music
ABOUT THE VAN CLIBURN FOUNDATION
The Van Cliburn Foundation disseminates classical music worldwide,
and nurtures and launches young artists' careers through the
quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the
ensuing three-year international concert tours of its medalists,
award-winning documentaries, radio broadcasts, and a live webcast
that extends its outreach to listeners around the world. In 2009,
over 2,857,573 total streams were delivered to viewers from 157
countries/territories.
The Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition will take place May 24-June 9, 2013, at Fort
Worth's Bass Performance Hall and will welcome 30 of the world's
finest young pianists to Texas. Continuing its longstanding
commitment to new music, the Cliburn has selected composer
Christopher Theofanidis to write the commissioned work that will be
performed by all competitors during the Semifinal Round.
Additionally, the Cliburn has been dedicated to showcasing both the
extraordinary talent of its competitors in recital performance as
well as their ability to collaborate with other musicians. The
Fourteenth Competition will mark the first Cliburn appearance by
the renowned Brentano String Quartet performing a piano quintet
with each of the 12 semifinalists. The Fort Worth Symphony
Orchestra, which has appeared at every Cliburn Competition, will
perform two concerti with each of the six finalists, under the
baton of Maestro Leonard Slatkin for the first time. Maestro John
Giordano will serve as chairman for his eleventh Competition since
assuming the post in 1973.
For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the Van Cliburn
Foundation promotes great music and world-class artists through the
annual Cliburn Concerts series. It reaches 33,000 elementary school
students with the education programs of Musical
Awakenings®. In 1999, it established the International Piano
Competition for Outstanding Amateurs™, which The Boston
Globe proclaimed "a celebration of music, and the people who
have to make music, no matter what." The sixth Amateur Competition
was held May 23-29, 2011, at Ed Landreth Auditorium on the campus
of TCU.
Visit Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn during its 50th
Anniversary year.
Official Sponsor of the Van Cliburn Foundation
are:
American Airlines
Amon G. Carter Foundation
Ann L. & Carol Green Rhodes Charitable Trust, Bank of America,
Trustee
Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County
Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust, Bank of America,
Trustee
ExxonMobil
JPMorgan Chase Foundation
Sid W. Richardson Foundation
The Burnett Foundation
The Pangburn Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, N.A., Trustee
XTO Energy
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