October 27, 2010
VLADIMIR FELTSMAN HONORS CHOPIN'S 200TH BIRTHDAY WITH
CLIBURN CONCERTS PROGRAM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Maggie Estes, Director of Marketing,
817.738.6536
Fort Worth, Texas, October 27,
2010:
The Van Cliburn Foundation presents Vladimir
Feltsman at Bass Performance Hall in Fort
Worth on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at
7:30 p.m. for a concert including performances of
Mozart's Fantasia in D Minor, Schubert's Four Impromptus, and
Chopin's Four Ballades. Single tickets start at $15 and are
available from Central Ticket Office at 800.462.7979 or online at
Cliburn.org.
A Meet and Greet introducing Cliburn President & CEO David
Chambless Worters will be held in the Mezzanine Lobby of Bass Hall
beginning at 6:30 p.m. and is open to all ticket holders.
The New York Times called Mr. Feltsman "quite simply an
amazing pianist." The Chicago Classical Review raved that,
"in the right repertoire [Mr. Feltsman] remains just as formidable
an artist as a blazing technician." The program that earned such
high marks in Chicago will also be perfomed at his stop in Fort
Worth.
This visit marks Mr. Feltsman's fourth appearance with Cliburn
Concerts, a first for the 34-year-old performance series and a real
coup for North Texas audiences who are able to hear a vast sampling
of music from an artist of this magnitude and demand. He has played
virtually every important venue in the world, including engagements
with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival in
Chicago, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra--and that's just 2010.
Of his August 24, 2010 performance in San Diego, the Union
Tribune said: "It's tempting to call Vladimir Feltsman a
madman. It's crazy what he can do at the piano. He has an
effortless yet Herculean technique and an even more formidable
ability to stretch a piece to its stylistic limits and beyond. You
expect the whole thing is going to come apart at the seams, that
the elements holding the structure of the piece together are simply
going to break apart, like a bridge compromised by a gale force
wind."
Born in Moscow in 1952, Mr. Feltsman debuted with the Moscow
Philharmonic at age 11. In 1969, he entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky
State Conservatory of Music to study piano under the guidance of
Professor Jacob Flier. He also studied conducting at both the
Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatories. In 1971,
Mr. Feltsman won the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long
International Piano Competition in Paris; extensive touring
throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe, and Japan followed
this.
In 1979, because of his growing discontent with the restrictions
on artistic freedom under the Soviet regime, Mr. Feltsman signaled
his intention to emigrate by applying for an exit visa. In
response, he was immediately banned from performing in public and
his recordings were suppressed. After eight years of virtual
artistic exile, he was finally granted permission to leave the
Soviet Union. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Mr.
Feltsman was warmly greeted at the White House, where he performed
his first recital in North America. That same year, his debut at
Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American
and international scenes.
A dedicated educator of young musicians, Mr. Feltsman holds the
Distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University
of New York, New Paltz, and is a member of the piano faculty at the
Mannes College of Music in New York City. He is the founder and
artistic director of the International Festival-Institute
PianoSummer at SUNY New Paltz, a three-week long intensive training
program for advanced piano students that attracts major young
talents from all over the world.
Mr. Feltsman's extensive discography has been released on the
Melodiya, Sony Classical, Music Masters, and Camerata, Tokyo
labels. His recordings include eight albums of clavier works of
J.S. Bach, recordings of Beethoven's last five piano sonatas, solo
piano works of Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Messiaen,
and Silvestrov, as well as concerti by Bach, Brahms, Chopin,
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev.
About the Van Cliburn Foundation
The Van Cliburn Foundation disseminates classical music worldwide,
and launches and nurtures young artists' careers through the
quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the
ensuing three-year international concert tour of its medalists,
award-winning documentaries, and a syndicated radio series
dedicated to the competition and its most memorable performances.
By making the competition available in its entirety on the
Internet, the Foundation has extended its outreach to listeners in
every corner of the globe.
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 over 30,000 elementary
school students annually with the education programs of Musical
Awakenings®. In 1999, it established the quadrennial
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 will be held May 23-29, 2011 at Ed Landreth
Auditorium on the campus of TCU.
Visit Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn as
it approaches the 50th anniversary of the Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition in 2012.
ExxonMobil is the Principal Corporate Sponsor
of the Van Cliburn Foundation. American Airlines;
Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust, Bank of America,
Trustee; City of Fort Worth; Steinway &
Sons; and XTO Energy Inc.are Official
Corporate Sponsors. Official Sponsors are the Amon G.
Carter Foundation, Arts Council of Fort
Worth & Tarrant County, Beaumont
Foundation of America, the Burnett
Foundation, the Sid W. Richardson
Foundation, and the T. Boone Pickens
Foundation. Star-Telegram is the
exclusive print media sponsor, and WRR 101.1 FM is
the official radio station of Cliburn Concerts.
