On April 26 and 27, pianist Inna Faliks will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s “Concerto No. 1 in g minor, op. 25”  with the Minnesota Sinfonia. This concerto (Mendelssohn’s fourth chronologically) is notable for the relatively early entrance of the piano soloist and the spaces left open for the composer’s improvisations.

The program also includes a world-premiere commission by Theodore Unseth and Ralph Vaughn Williams’s “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.” The first of two concerts begins at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at Founders Hall at Metropolitan State University, 700 East 7th Street in St. Paul. The second concert begins at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 27 at Basilica of St. Mary at 88 17th St. N. in Minneapolis. Admission is free and children are welcome to attend. Audience members should arrive early—all concerts are first-come, first-seated.

COMPLETE PROGRAM:

T. Unseth Concertino (World Premiere)
R. V. Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
F. Mendelssohn Concerto No. 1, op. 25

Called “adventurous” and “passionate” by The New Yorker and “poetic” by Time Out New York, Ukrainian-born, New York City based pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and poetic artists of her generation. After her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 15, acclaimed by the Chicago Tribune, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart.

Critics praise her “courage to take risks, expressive intensity and technical perfection” (General Anzeiger, Bonn), “Infusing every note with brilliance and personality,” (Hilton Head Competition Review), “poetry and panoramic vision” (Washington Post) , “riveting passion, playfulness” (Baltimore Sun) and her “virtuosity, humor, lyricism and a way to make every note an important part of the texture of the music.”(Free Times, South Carolina). Her CD on MSR Classics, Sound of Verse, was released in 2009, featuring music of Boris Pasternak, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, receiving excellent reviews from Gramophone, American Record Guide, and other music publications.

Additional Minnesota Sinfonia concert information is available at 612-871-1701 or www.mnsinfonia.org.

Australian percussion ensemble Speak Percussion will collaborate with four American ensembles on a U.S. tour with the Vanishing Languages project. Kevin James’s new work is the result of a nine-month sojourn across three continents, researching the remaining speakers of dead languages.

Speak Percussion will be at New York City’s Roulette (509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY) joined by the ETHEL String Quartet and the [kaj] Ensemble on March 28 and 29 at 8:00 pm.

Then they will be at San Francisco’s ODC Dance Commons (351 Shotwell Street, San Francisco) joined by the Del Sol String Quartet and Nonsemble 6 on April 5 and 6 at 8:00 pm. For further information about Speak Percussion and their up-coming performances, please contact Zilla & Brook Publicity at [email protected].

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Shanghai/New York based pianist Jenny Q Chai (www.JennyChai.com) will perform a concert entitled Acqua Alta (High Water), at New York City’s Spectrum on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 8pm. Spectrum is located at 121 Ludlow St., New York City. Admission is $15 general / $10 students & seniors.

Acqua Alta (High Water) will be the anchor of a month-long programming focus on global warming at Spectrum, with installations based on data curated by Ian Fenty, whose doctoral dissertation at MIT addressed global warming and its effects on our oceans.

“I wanted to create a program that is multifaceted like the surface of a sparkling stream in Venice,” says pianist Chai. “The music on this program features the piano’s range of expression, from exquisite nuance to bold gesture.”

John Cage’s athletic Water Walk is the centerpiece of the program. Written in 1959, John Cage’s Water Walk is scored for a number of objects, including bathtub, rubber duck, prepared piano and five radios. It was originally premiered on the Italian TV show Lascia O Raddoppia. Ninnananna from Marco Stroppa’s Miniature Estrose—a lullaby in which its out of worldly tremors creates a gentle watery shimmer and explores the two relations between two states of mind, with initiated knowledge one might trace hidden lullabies by Brahms, Schubert, Stravinsky and an Italian lullaby Stroppa’s mother used to sing to him. Scarlatti and Gibbons provides the sensation of traveling back in time in Italy, while Debussy and Ravel adds their watery imagery. Three world premieres by Nils Vigeland, Milica Paranosic and Michael Vincent Waller reflect contemporary composers’ take on global warming.

Acqua Alta (High Water) Concert Program:

• Milica Paranosic Bubble World Premiere
• Kurtag Hommage à Scarlatti
• Scarlatti, Sonatas
• Gibbons, Allemande (1613)
• Marco Stroppa, Ninnananna from Miniature Estrose
• Liszt, La lugubre gondola
• Debussy, Prelude La cathédrale engloutie
• Ravel, Une Barque Sur L’océan  from Miroirs
• Nils Vigeland, I Turisti World Premiere
• Michael Vincent Waller Acqua Santa World Premiere
• John Cage, Water Walk

Recently having made her Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall, pianist Jenny Q Chai was praised by the New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini for her “resourceful technique and sensitivity” as well as playing that is “admirable for its refinement and directness.” Of her performance at the Keys to the Future Festival, Zachary Woolfe wrote, also in the New York Times: “Jenny Q Chai opened the concert playing two of Ligeti’s Études with rich tone and rhythmic clarity; especially strong was her “Cordes à vide.” In addition to Carnegie Hall, Jenny has played at New York venues such as Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, Symphony Space, the Stone and recently made her Chicago debut playing Schumann’s Kreisleriana at the Dame Myra Hess Series.

An adventurous and prodigiously talented young player, Jenny Q Chai cultivates a mercurial and engrossing stage presence and seeks to create “fairy tales for grown-ups” in her themed and multimedia concert performances. Ms. Chai’s unique programs include standard classical repertoire such as Schumann and Debussy to 20th and 21st century piano works, often by living composers, such as Marco Stroppa, with whom she has a close affiliation.

Recipient of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust’s 2011 Pianist/Composer Commissioning Project, first prize winner of the Keys to the Future Contemporary Solo Piano Festival, and recipient of the DAAD Arts and Performance award in 2010, Chai has premiered, most notably, Life Sketches and Five Pieces (for Jenny Q Chai) by Nils Vigeland, Intimate Rejection by Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, Messiaen’s Canteyodjaya (China premiere) and Marco Stroppa’s Innige Cavatina (US premiere). Chai has also premiered “Marriage (Mile 58) Section F” from The Road by Frederick Rzewski in Ghent, Belgium, where she was given the Logos Award for the best performance of 2008. Chai played the first contemporary solo piano concert in China this June at the National Performing Arts Center in Beijing; and she recently had the privilege of introducing the concept of prepared piano to a Chinese audience, with the world premiere of Mallet Dance by John Slover, in Shanghai Concert Hall.

Ms. Chai is currently working on a CD of the works of composer Nils Vigeland for Naxos Records.

On Sunday, March 24, puppet theater company Blair Thomas & Co. will perform their adaption of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant at the Milwaukee Art Museum as part of of their Family Saturdays, sponsored by Kohl’s Art Generation. The Selfish Giant will begin at 2:30 p.m. and is free with museum admission.

Thomas is a “master puppeteer,” whom Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times has likened to a “latter-day Hans Christian Andersen.” A collaboration with singer-songwriter Michael Smith, The Selfish Giant adapts a revered fairy tale by Oscar Wilde into 45 minutes of music, magic, and impressive puppetry. “Thomas’s work is always best in an intimate setting,” says Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune, and there are few venues more perfectly suited to Thomas’ work than the Milwaukee Art Museum (not in the least because the building itself is a puppet in its very design).

Blair Thomas & Company is a national and international touring puppet theater company that was founded in 2002 by puppeteer and director/designer Blair Thomas. They have made over a dozen original puppet theater pieces including: Cabaret of Desire, a staging of short works by Federico Garcia Lorca; The Ox-herder’s Tale an interpretive staging of the Buddhist parable of 10 painting of enlightenment; A Kite’s Tale an original silent narrative staged to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for orchestra or solo piano. They have also toured with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. They have made collaboration productions with other companies such as Pierrot Lunaire a staging of Arnold Schoenberg’s song cycle with the chamber music ensemble eighth blackbird; an original adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant and an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s The Houdini Box both with the Chicago Children’s Theatre. Twice Blair Thomas & Company has received the international UNIMA awards for excellence in the art of puppetry. Twice the company has performed at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, once during when Blair was the first artist chosen to fill the Jim Henson Artist-in-Residence position at the University of Maryland.

On March 30, pianist Inna Faliks will present “Three Jewish Composers” at Baruch Performing Arts Center, Baruch College, 25th Street, New York City. This lecture is combined with performances of the work with Schoenberg, Gershwin, and Zhurbin. Click here for more information.

Called “adventurous” and “passionate” by The New Yorker and “poetic” by Time Out New York, Ukrainian-born, New York City-based pianist Inna Faliks (www.innafaliks.com) has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and poetic artists of her generation. After her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart. Critics praise her “courage to take risks, expressive intensity and technical perfection” (General Anzeiger, Bonn), “poetry and panoramic vision” (Washington Post), and “riveting passion, playfulness” (Baltimore Sun). Her acclaimed CD on MSR Classics, “Sound of Verse”, was released in 2009.

Ms. Faliks has performed numerous recitals and concerti in prestigious venues in the US and internationally. She has been featured on radio and international television broadcasts, and has performed in major venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Concert Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris’ Salle Cortot, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall and in numerous important festivals.