January 2014 - Atlanta Music Teachers Association

AMTA Newsletter
January 2014
Contents
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January meeting,
Happy New Year,
AMTA Friends!
Dear Colleagues,
Alexander Kobrin
Masterclass,
upcoming events
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List of events and
deadlines in point
form
As 2013 comes to an end and 2014 starts, I want
to thank all the members and board of AMTA for
making this semester run so smoothly. I hope that
in this new year we will continue with the same
vigor, and that we will attract more members.
Happy New Year to you all!
S.C. Fred Hsiang
Alexander
Kobrin
Masterclass
10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
January 29
Reminder: A Guest of our
Please help us in extending a warm welcome to our
newest member, Martha Gerschefski. Welcome,
Martha - we look forward to getting to know you at
future events!
Looking Ahead
The next AMTA Meeting is January 10, 10:00 AM, at
Steinway Piano Gallery Atlanta. The specific purpose of
this meeting will be to prepare for the upcoming Local
Auditions. All members are encouraged to come and
help out.
January 15 is the deadline for applications to the
AMTA’s own Atlanta Music Festival taking place
February 16th
January 24 is the deadline for participation in the
AMTA Local Auditions. The auditions will be held at
Georgia State University, February 23.
The much-anticipated Alexander Kobrin Masterclass
happens January 29 followed one week later by the
AEMA Baroque Keyboard Workshop, February 7-8.
(Applications due January 27).
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January program, Alexander
Kobrin, L.Rexford Whiddon
Distinguished Chair in Piano at
Schwob School of Music of
Columbus State University, and
Artist Faculty of the Steinhardt
School of Piano Studies at New
York University in New York City
will present a master class on
Wednesday, January 29, 2014,
10:00am -12:30pm at the
Steinway Piano Galleries in
Alpharetta.
Don’t miss this exciting
opportunity to hear the insight
and artistry of this world-class
musician!
If you are interested in
attending a lunch with Mr.
Kobrin after the master
class, please RSVP with
Raisa Isaacs:
[email protected]
ALEX KOBRIN
BBC Russia named Alexander Kobrin the "Van Cliburn of today", putting him in the front row of musicians of his
generation.
Internationally acclaimed pianist Alexander Kobrin was born in 1980 in Moscow, Russia. He began playing the
piano at the age of 5 and in the same year he was enrolled in the world-famous Gnessin's Special School of
Music. He completed his studies there with professor Tatiana Zelikman, and went on to further his skills at the
Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire with professor Lev Naumov, completing his post-graduate studies when he
was 25.
Alexander Kobrin is the winner of numerous international piano competitions - notably the Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition, and was a winner of the renown Busoni, Hamamatsu, and Glasgow
International Piano Competitions. He has received numerous special awards for his brilliant technique, his
musicality, and his emotionally engaging with the audience through music.
Since receiving the prestigious Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition in June 2005, Alexander has solidified his reputation with an outstanding first tour of the
United States.
Past performances include recitals at Bass Hall for the Cliburn Series and the Washington Performing Arts
Society, followed by further debuts at La Roque d'Antheron, the Ravinia Festival, the Beethoven Easter Festival,
the Hannover Prize Winners Series, Turner Sims, the Enescu International Festival in Bucharest, and the renowned
Klavier-Festival Ruhr, with critics praising his "interpretative musicianship [and] considerable insight," and his
"elegance, grace, and spirit."
His biggest passion in life is for performance, and every year he adds new, impressive collaborations to his evergrowing CV, touring extensively in Europe, Asia, and the US. He has collaborated with many of the world's major
orchestras such as New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, English Chamber
Orchestra, Orchestra Verdi, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Berliner Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Birmingham Symphony, Warsaw
Philharmonic, and many others.
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Alexander has also collaborated with numerous leading conductors including Mihail Pletnev, Mihail Jurovsky,
Mark Elder, Vassiliy Sinaisky, James Conlon, Claus Peter Flor, Alexander Lazarev, Vassiliy Petrenko and Yuri
Bashmet, amongst others.
His appearances worldwide have featured recitals and performances in major halls worldwide, including the
Louvre Auditorium and Saller Cortot in Paris, Wigmore Hall and Albert Hall in London, Munich Herkulesaal and
Berliner Filarmonia Hall in Germany, Kennedy Centre in Washington, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the Great Hall
at the Moscow Conservatoire, Sheung Wan Civic Centre in Hong Kong, as well as the Esplanade Concert Hall
in Singapore, Sala Verdi in Milan, and many others. He has also performed at Salle Gaveau, Paris, where both
Mezzo and ARTE broadcast his Two-Piano recital in collaboration with his friend of many years, French pianist
Frederic d’Oria Nicolas.
Alexander has also made appearances and given masterclasses at the Festival Musique dans le Grésivaudan
and the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in Mannes as well as at the International Piano Series and the
Busoni Festival. He has given a recital tour of Italy including cities such as Milan, Rome, Florence, Bolzano,
Verona, Palermo and many others. He has also given annual tours in Japan and China, and has performed
with the Russian National Orchestra under direction of Mihail Pletnev.
Other engagements include a German tour with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra in Munich, Frankfurt and
Dortmund, where he performed Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1; the Swedish Radio Symphony with Juraj
Valcuha; the Ulster Orchestra with Kenneth Montgomery; Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin with Ludovic
Morlot; the Warsaw Philharmonic with Eiji Oue; KBS Symphony Orchestra with Claus Peter Flor; the BBC
Symphony Orchestra with Krzysztof Urbanski; Phoenix Symphony with Michael Christie; the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras. In the US, his engagements include he has
performed with the Fort Worth Symphony, Florida West Coast Symphony, Fox Valley Symphony, Fairbanks
Symphony, Flagstaff Symphony, and Columbus Symphony Orchestras, with his "awe-inspiringly assured"
technique consistently admired by presenters.
Alexander Kobrin's debuts with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall and the inaugural concert of the
Bethel Woods Arts Centre was hugely successful; critics praised his "lyricism, which he couched in a thoughtfully
shaped, singing line," noting, "when he addressed the barnstorming passages on their own terms, he did so with
a steely edge and ample - if thoroughly controlled - force."
Other noteworthy critical acclaims include reviews in New York Times and Gramophone Magazine - describing
his playing as "memorably personal and stylish" and "hypnotic," while many others critics noted his "feathery
touch and sparkling passagework" and his ability to "set all the different kinds of tone colors and structures
against each other to create contrast, and to illuminate tensions between light and shade, brightness and
melancholy in a multitude of layers." The experience of hearing Alexander Kobrin live was well summed up by
Nick Rogers, who, after hearing Alexander perform a Rachmaninov concerto, said: "Kobrin's dazzling dexterity
certainly seemed supernatural to see, but his talent and performance [with the orchestra] was decidedly
human." Indeed, as a performer, the exchange of experience, musicianship, and emotion are always at the
forefront of his priorities. Alexander showed the strength of music in yet another way in 2005, when he was the
first to give a charity recital in New Orleans, Louisiana after hurricane Katrina.
Alexander has always felt that there is a very special connection between teaching and self-development,
believing the two to be integrally linked. He now divides his time between performing around the world and
teaching, and is, in his words, "glad to have this balance between performing and teaching ... trying to
continue on the path of the emotional approach [to music]." Though acclaimed fore-mostly as a performer,
Alexander Kobrin, as a teacher, has been a true inspiration to many students through his passion for music. He
served on the faculty of the Gnessin's Academy of Music from 2003 to 2010. Since 2006 he has been on the
faculty of the IKIF at Mannes College of Music, and is now the "L.Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano"
at Schwob School of Music of Columbus State University. In 2013, Alexander joins the renowned Artist Faculty of
the Steinhardt School of Piano Studies at New York University in New York City.
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ALEX KOBRIN
Alexander Kobrin has been a jury member for several international piano competitions, including "Prix Animato",
Paris , Bluthner International Piano Competition in Vienna and Neuhaus International Piano Festival in Moscow,
Russia.
In addition to his performing and teaching, Alexander also regularly undertakes recording projects, working
with various well-known labels from Quartz and King Records to Harmonia Mundi and Centaur Records. In
addition to the Van Cliburn Competition disc from Harmonia Mundi (2005), which included Rachmaninov and
Brahms, he has released three volumes of Essential Chopin, as well as a Brahms CD (Op.79, Op.116, & Op.119).
His most recent projects include a new disk of Haydn (December 2012) with Quartz, and a Schumann disk, due
to come out in 2013 with Centaur Records.
Master class
Wednesday, January 29
Steinway Piano Galleries in Alpharetta
5950 North Point Pkwy
Alpharetta, GA 30022
(770) 777-1300
Schedule
10:00 - Mozart Sonata K.333, Allegretto Grazioso (Jewon Hwang, E. Cholokova)
10:30 - Chopin Impromptu Op.66 (Yuy Hsiang, Fred Hsiang)
11:00 – Break
11:30 -- Beethoven Sonata Op.90, I mvt. ( Alex Claussen, G. Vann)
12:00 -- S. Prokofiev, Sonata Op.28 No. 3(Joshua Shue, Hwee Boon Ng)
12:30--J. Brahms Rhapsody O.79 No.1 (Angela Anzai, Soohyun Yun)
1:00 – Q&A
Substitute: Liszt. Hungarian Rhapsody No.11 (Yannie Tan, Anne Sun)
2:00 Lunch with Alex Kobrin at the“Figo” restaurant at the Steinway Piano Galleries plaza
(RSVP required)
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AEMA Keyboard Workshop
on Baroque Instruments
February 7- 8, 2014
Submitted by AMTA member Raisa Isaacs and AEMA Board member David Buice
Atlanta Early Music Alliance, as a part of Early Music America, presents
Keyboard Workshop on Baroque Instruments
Friday, February 7,
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Open to pianists and harpsichordists of any level of accomplishment, the workshop will provide
area pianists with their first opportunity to play early keyboard music on instruments similar to
those which inspired that music (no harpsichord experience required).
The workshop will be particularly relevant for young pianists who participate regularly in the
local MTAs, NMTA, J. S. Bach and other competitions.
Piano students know well that any serious musical competition requires a Baroque piece in the
program. Just as Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier was intended for the harpsichord or clavichord
– as opposed to the modern piano – it can be equally revelatory that French Baroque music
sounds better on a harpsichord designed after French examples, than on a Flemish-styled
instrument.
Students (and their teachers!) will have a unique opportunity to participate at the workshop,
either as listeners or performers, and have a chance to play on the several instruments that the
event will offer: French, Italian, and Flemish harpsichords, clavichord, and lautenwerck (luteharpsichord).
The workshop will include presentations on Baroque repertoire for beginner and advanced
levels.
Teacher-performers will include AEMA board members David Buice and Daniel Pyle.
The workshop will be held at Church of the New Covenant, Atlanta (Doraville).
On Friday evening, February 7 (7pm-8:30pm), there will be a presentation-demonstration of
all the featured keyboard instruments, with an opportunity for participants to experience the
various keyboards, “hands on”, following the demonstration performances.
On Saturday, February 8 (9:30pm-2pm) the instruments will be in separate locations
throughout the church, allowing participants to experience each instrument individually either
in master classes with the Workshop faculty or to explore on their own.
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AEMA members are invited to join AMTA participants in adding to your understanding and
enjoyment of these instruments that are so central to early music!
Students participating in the master class/final recital will receive
AEMA Baroque Keyboard Workshop Certificate (Active).
Students attending and observing the Workshop will receive
AEMA Baroque Keyboard Workshop Certificate (Passive)
As a part of AMTA Programs 2013-2014 – registration fee of AMTA teachers and
students will be covered.
To register for the Master class – please fill out the Application Form on page 10 and send to:
Raisa Isaacs
3988 D’Youville Ct. Atlanta, GA 30341
Postmark Deadline: Monday, January 27, 2014
If you have questions, please contact:
David Buice, [email protected]
Daniel Pyle, [email protected]
Raisa Isaacs, [email protected]
Faculty BIO
David Buice is Performing Artist-in-Residence at Oglethorpe University and
Harpsichordist-in-Residence at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. He made his New
York City debut in two recitals at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, playing the Museum’s historic 1830 Appleton
pipe organ, as well as becoming the first solo harpsichordist to be presented on the exclusive Patrons Lounge
Recital Series. He returned to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to play a lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord) recital
for the Patrons Lounge Series.Other performances have included recitals and master classes at The University of
Memphis and The University of Mississippi, while his West Coast tours have taken him to Las Vegas, Nevada,
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and to numerous venues in California, including Berkeley, Claremont (Pomona College), Monterey,
Oakland,San Diego, San Francisco, Redlands, and Malibu (Pepperdine University). His performances have
been broadcast on Public Radio and Television as well as on the Turner Broadcast System. Since 2001 he has
given historic keyboard performances, playing harpsichords, lautenwerck, clavichord and fortepiano at
Oglethorpe University’s Museum of Art.David Buice was a founding member of the Southeastern Historical
Keyboard Society; he also serves on the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Early Music Alliance. His numerous
awards and honors include a major grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts and the National Endowment,
which commissioned for his use a concert harpsichord by Richard Kingston, which has been heard in recitals
and master classes throughout the southeast. Recordings include La Sylva and Other Seductions, featuring his
large Kingston harpsichord, Go Calmly into Christmas with Sally Chapman Phillips, Soprano, and Heaven and
Earth: Ancient Music for Relaxation and Meditation, in which his playing of a lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord) by
Anden Houben evokes the 17th-century use of the lute and its music to induce altered states for healing and
enlightenment.David Buice is Minister of Music at Doraville’s Church of the New Covenant, directing the
Chancel Choir and Asbell Ringers; he continues to develop, with Pastor Rick Neale, the uniquely varied worship
service for which the church is known.
Daniel Pyle-keyboardist for the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, taught at Clayton
College and State University and is organist and music director for the Church of Our Saviour in Atlanta.Dr. Pyle
and his wife Catherine Bull are founding members of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and have performed with
them throughout the group’s existence. Dr. Pyle served as Resident Director for several years when an Artistic
Director was not working with us.Dr. Pyle has appeared as organ-soloist with Georgia’s Albany Symphony
Orchestra, playing Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony; has performed as
harpsichord-soloist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra performing all of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos;
and with Orchestra Atlanta in Roswell. His CD The Maiden’s Songe: Virginal Music on the Lautenwerk was
released in 1998 on the Gasparo label.As a chamber-musician, Dr. Pyle has played with the ensemble
Harmonie Universelle in Paris, Amsterdam, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields and
other venues, and throughout the American Southeast and Mid-West, including the 1992 Piccolo Spoleto
Festival and the Boston Early Music Festival. Their American performances have been heard many times on
NPR’s Performance Today. He studied organ and harpsichord at the University of Alabama and the Eastman
School of Music, and in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt and Hans van Nieuwkoop, and at the Accademia
Musicale Chigiana in the class of Kenneth Gilbert. Since returning to this country, he has also taught at the
University of Kansas and at Louisiana State University.
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Atlanta Early Music Alliance present
Saturday, February 8, 2014, 10:00 AM-2
The Church of the New Covenant
3330 Chestnut Dr., Atlanta, GA 30340
Master class on Period Keyboard Instruments (harpsichordsItalian, French, Flemish, clavichord, and Lute-harpsichord)
APPLICATION FORM
Student’s Name__________________________________
Teacher’s Name (if applicable)______________________________________
Phone Number (student, teacher)______________________________
E-mail address_______________________________
Postal Address_____________________________________________________
Program________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Postmark Deadline: Monday, January 27, 2014
Mail Application Form to:
Raisa P. Isaacs
3988 D’Youville Ct.
Atlanta GA 30341
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(770) 650-9139
[email protected]
Atlanta Music Teachers Association invites piano and voice students of any age, level, and
ability to participate at the Atlanta Music Festival. The Festival is intended to provide the
participants an opportunity to perform and receive evaluations of their performances from
impartial judges. The students will be given positive reinforcement, so that they will be
encouraged to continue their musical studies. The first year beginners will find it just as
rewarding as the advanced students.
Participants will need to perform two contrasting piano pieces/concerto movement/duets for
pianists or two songs/arias for singers from memory. Students may use a score for a duet
category performance. The performances will be held in front of a judge. The judges of the
festival are distinguished performers and pedagogues from the Georgia State University School
of Music and Kennesaw University College of Music.
The Festival will be held on Sunday, February 16th, 2014, 1:00pm-6:30pm at England Piano:
3740 Dekalb Technology Pkwy, Atlanta, GA 30340
Postmark deadline for applications is January 15, 2014
The entry application fees are:
Solo/Concerto/Song/Aria- $20 per student, piano
Duet- $13 per student.
Fees may be paid online through the Atlanta Music Festival Main webpage, or checks may be
mailed to the Festival Chairperson. The entrance application forms are available to fill in
online, or can be downloaded, printed out, filled in, and mailed to the Festival Chairperson.
Chair: Elena Dorozhkina,
706 Holmes str., Apt. D, Atlanta, GA, 30318
tel: (817) 403-3870
email: [email protected]
The updated music festival webpage is coming soon. Please visit www.atlmta.org for more
information.
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News from AMTA Studios:
Doyle Wang, a student of Raisa
Isaacs, has been announced
as one of the Winners of the
American Protégé International
Competition of Romantic Music
2013 in the category 15-17
years old and will participate at
Carnegie Hall Winners Recital in
New York City.
Events
AMTA Business Meeting
January 10, 10:00 AM
Steinway Galleries Atlanta
Alex Kobrin Masterclass
January 29, 10:00 AM
Steinway Piano Alpharetta
Please remember: you have
to attend no less than two
AMTA meetings in order to
apply for the local auditions
and competitions without a
penalty of $50!
AMTA NEEDS YOU TO FILL
THESE ROLES:
AMEA Baroque Workshop
February 7-8, Church of
the New Covenant, ATL
MTNA Foundation,
Hospitality, Certification
AMTA Atlanta Music Fest
February 16, 1-630 PM
England Piano
Questions about AMTA
MusicFest direct to the new
chair, Elena Dorozhkina,
tel.: (817) 403-3870,
Local Audtions
February 23
Georgia State University
Deadlines
January 15
Application – Atlanta
Music Festival
January 24 (postmarked)
Application – Local AMTA
Auditions (mail to
Anne Sun)
January 27
Application – AEMA
Baroque Keyboard
Workshop
.
[email protected]