Recital to Celebrate Art of Piano Collaboration
For Immediate Release July 10, 2009
Contact:
Tim Dougherty
805.695.7908
Santa Barbara, CA – Versatility and seamlessness are the defining watchwords for collaborative pianists. How do they adapt so readily to the needs of their performing partners, be they violinists or marimba players?
Led by department director Jonathan Feldman, the Music Academy of the West's extraordinary collaborative piano faculty will demonstrate their amazing talent for protean classical performances in a special recital at 7:30 pm Tuesday, August 4, in Hahn Hall. Titled "Plays Well with Others," the event will feature collaborative piano faculty members Natasha Kislenko and Margaret McDonald as well as Mr. Feldman performing a varied chamber repertoire with select Academy instrumental Fellows. Faculty members also will comment on the subtleties of piano accompaniment between performances. Tickets cost $25 (keyboard side) and $18 (house right).
"This is intended as a showcase for the collaborative piano department, to demonstrate what it is we do," explained Mr. Feldman, who has been a Music Academy faculty member since 2003 (see bios below). "We're called upon to do a lot of different things as collaborative pianists, many of which probably go unnoticed by listeners. We want to expose the audience to the techniques and processes that give rise to exceptional musical collaborations."
Hahn Hall is on the Music Academy campus, located at 1070 Fairway Road in Santa Barbara.
As part of its 62nd Summer Festival, the Music Academy also will present an ambitious production of Ambroise Thomas' charming French Romantic opera Mignon, as well as performances by conductor Leonard Slatkin and the Takács Quartet. The Academy is presenting more than 190 events over the course of this year's Summer School and Festival, which began June 22 and concludes on August 15. Additional highlights will include a performance by Canadian Brass and conducting turns by Peter Oundjian, George Manahan, Nicholas McGegan, and Alexander Mickelthwate. Featuring the Academy's exceptionally talented Fellows, together with illustrious guest performers and faculty, the events will be presented at the Academy's scenic Miraflores campus and in venues throughout Santa Barbara.
For information, call 969-8787. Information is also available online at www.musicacademy.org.
Founded in 1947, the Music Academy of the West is among the nation's preeminent summer schools and festivals for gifted young classical musicians. The Academy provides these promising musicians with the opportunity for advanced study and frequent performance under the guidance of internationally renowned faculty artists, guest conductors, and soloists. Admission to the Academy is strictly merit based, and Fellows receive full scholarships (tuition, room, and board). Academy alumni are members of major symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, ensembles, opera companies, and university and conservatory faculties throughout the world. Many enjoy careers as prominent solo artists. Based in Santa Barbara, the Music Academy of the West presents more than 200 public events annually, including performances by faculty, visiting artists, and Fellows; masterclasses; orchestra and chamber music concerts; and fully staged opera. The Music Academy began broadcasting live performances by the world-renowned Metropolitan Opera at Hahn Hall in October 2008. For more information, visit www.musicacademy.org.
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Jonathan Feldman, director, collaborative piano department
Recognized by colleagues and critics worldwide as a leading chamber musician and accompanist, Jonathan Feldman has performed on four continents with some of the world's greatest instrumentalists, among them the legendary Nathan Milstein, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, James Galway, Sarah Chang, and Joshua Bell. As a chamber musician, he appears in concert as a member of the trio Zephyr, and he performs regularly with the New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonic Ensemble at Lincoln Center. In October Mr. Feldman made his debut with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and was a featured performer in Live From Lincoln Center with Gil Shaham, which was broadcast throughout the United States on PBS.
A graduate of Juilliard, Mr. Feldman joined the Juilliard faculty in 1989 and today chairs the school's collaborative piano department. He has given masterclasses throughout the United States and the Far East and has lectured at international festivals and competitions. His regular summer festival appearances include Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, Music from Angel Fire, and Hidden Valley.
Mr. Feldman's most recent recording is with violinist Gil Shaham for DGG. He has also recorded for Angel/EMI, Columbia Masterworks, RCA Red Seal, Naxos, Nonesuch, Summit, and CALA records. He can be heard on soundtracks to many movies, the most recent being Music of the Heart with Meryl Streep and The Man Who Wasn't There, directed by the Coen Brothers.
Mr. Feldman was a
guest artist at the Music
Academy in 2001 and 2002,
and has been a faculty member since 2003.
Natasha Kislenko, collaborative pianist
Natasha (Natalia) Kislenko has performed extensively as a soloist and a collaborative pianist in Russia, Europe, and the United States.
She has appeared in recital and chamber music performances with numerous distinguished soloists, including Sarah Chang, Torleif Tedeen, James Buswell, Zvi Zeitlin, Theodore Kuchar, Tadeu Coelho, and Leone Buyse. As a soloist, Ms. Kislenko has received top prizes in international piano competitions in Germany, Portugal, France, the Slovak Republic, and the United States. She made her solo recital debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 1996.
Ms. Kislenko holds graduate degrees in piano from the famed Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia, the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University (Dallas), and the State University of New York, Stony Brook, where she completed her doctorate with Gilbert Kalish in 2004.
In 2007 Ms. Kislenko moved to Santa Barbara to assume a full-time teaching position at UC Santa Barbara. Previously, she served on the faculties of California State University, Fresno, and Meadowmount School of Music (New York).
An alumna of the Music Academy
(2001), Ms. Kislenko has been a member of the
faculty since 2004.
Margaret McDonald, collaborative pianist
Margaret McDonald is an assistant professor of collaborative piano at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Having joined the keyboard faculty in the fall of 2004, she helped to develop the College of Music's new graduate degree program in collaborative piano and directed the undergraduate collaborative curriculum.
Ms. McDonald enjoys a very active performing career regionally and nationally as a recital partner with many distinguished artists. She received bachelor's and master's degrees in piano performance from the University of Minnesota, where she was a student of Lydia Artymiw, and recently completed her doctor of musical arts degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she worked with Anne Epperson.
Ms. McDonald received a fellowship to study at the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2003. The following year she was invited to the Meadowmount School for Strings in New York as a staff accompanist. She has served as an official accompanist for the annual competition at the Music Teachers National Association Convention since 2005.
Ms. McDonald is an alumna of the Music Academy (2000-2002) and has been a member of the faculty since 2005.
