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Phil Cohen

Discovery Through Sound: The Art of Phil Cohen

By Kristine Berey on 1 April 2017 Interviews, Piano, Quebec Music

When retired Concordia music professor Phil Cohen was hospitalized in early February, his piano students didn’t want to miss their lesson, so they joined him at the Richardson Hospital where he was recovering. For a brief moment the common room was transformed into a concert hall with a master class in progress. As patients watched TV while others listened, the old beat-up piano-in-residence, freshly tuned for the occasion, filled the space with the music of Granados, Albeniz, and Prokofiev. This is a significant year for Cohen, who turned 90 in February. It is his 50th year since joining Concordia, where…

Jacques Marquis, Photo: UQÀM

Jacques Marquis Leads The Cliburn

By Paul E. Robinson on 1 April 2017 Interviews, Piano

Many years ago, Ft. Worth, Texas was perhaps best known for its stockyards. Ranchers would organize massive cattle drives to bring their herds to its railhead and slaughterhouses. It was a “cowtown” with all the unsavoury services that went with that connotation, including gambling, drinking, prostitution, and all-out hell-raising. Bits of the stockyards are still there, now a tourist attraction rather than a collection of foul-smelling pens and meat-packing factories. Over the past 20 years, Ft. Worth has undergone a major transformation. Its population today approaches a million residents and it boasts such major businesses as Lockheed Martin, one of…

Robert Charlebois

CMIM 2017

By Olivier Gentil on 1 April 2017 La Scena Spotlight, Piano, Quebec Music

“The cynical and tender spirit, a modern and unique thought, a characteristically Quebecois music, the star of this popular concert of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Robert Charlebois.” These are the words of Roger Bouchard, television host, in 1971. It happened 46 years ago at Montreal’s Place des Arts. At just 27 years old, the young Robert Charlebois, dressed in an original and colourful shirt – typical of the 1970s – was going to live the experience of the symphony orchestra. Today, he admits that he has never refused the opportunity to play with an orchestra. Probably one of the…

Dang Thai Son, Illustration: Hefka

Dang Thai Son: The Finer Things in Life

By Arthur Kaptainis on 1 April 2017 Canadian Music, Interviews, Piano

Dang Thai Son is a man of discriminating taste. After a swirl and a sniff and a sip, he sent back a glass of red from Burgenland at a midtown Montreal bistro. “It’s quite light,” he said in his soft and gently accented English. “Maybe something richer.” This Hanoi-born pianist and long-time Montrealer is in the business of making fine distinctions. Recently recognized with an Opus Prize for a 2016 recital of Chopin and Schumann at Bourgie Hall, Son is perhaps even better known as high-end consultant to young pianists from around the world and a judge on the competition…

Oliver Esmonde-White

Piano Esmonde White: A New Cycle for the Piano

By Kristine Berey on 1 April 2017 Interviews, Piano, Quebec Music

Oliver Esmonde-White’s great passion is the piano. But his love for the instrument is different from that of the pianist, whose heroes may be Bach, Beethoven or other great composers. Esmonde-White, a master piano technician, draws inspiration from the great piano builders of the past. “Pianos were glorious once upon a time,” he said, citing names like Bechstein, Mason & Hamelin and Bösendorfer. Each piano had a distinct sound, but was considered on par with Steinway. Closer to home, “We have forgotten that Heintzman, Willis, Lesage and Lindsay were made not far from here. We have done virtually no research…

Robert Charlebois spokesperson of the CMIM

By Newswire on 16 March 2017 Arts Industry, Classical, Classical Music, Newswire, Piano

I am delighted to announce that Montreal-born Robert Charlebois, a major Quebec star across all francophone cultures, is the CMIM 2017 spokesperson. With a career spanning over 50 years showcasing Montreal on stages worldwide, Robert Charlebois is the perfect ambassador for our competition as this year marks both our 15th anniversary and Montreal’s 375th anniversary. – Christiane LeBlanc, Executive and Artistic Director – “I am thrilled to be joining forces with the CMIM. Hats off to these young virtuoso pianists who have to present two recital rounds before performing the final round with none other than our national treasure the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. I…

30 Competitors Annonced For Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

By Newswire on 8 March 2017 Arts Industry, Newswire, Piano

The Competition takes place May 25–June 10, 2017, at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall FORT WORTH, Texas, March 7, 2017—The Cliburn announces today the 30 competitors selected to participate in the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, taking place May 25–June 10, 2017, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Two hundred and ninety pianists submitted applications to participate in the 2017 Cliburn Competition, and 141 auditioned live in front of a five-member screening jury in London, Hannover, Budapest, Moscow, Seoul, New York, and Fort Worth in January and February 2017. “After an exhilarating and quite thorough process,…

24 Reasons to Follow CMIM Piano 2017 in May!

By Newswire on 7 March 2017 Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Newswire, Piano

24 young pianists, 6 women and 18 men from 15 countries with an average age of 26, have been selected to participate in the CMIM (Concours musical international de Montréal) next May 2 to 12. The highest number of candidates are from South Korea (7), followed by France (3) and Italy (3). The remaining countries are represented by one participant each: Canada, China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan. The 24 competitors were selected out of a record-breaking 304 pianists, representing the highest number of applicants in the history of the Competition and…

Lebrecht Weekly – Nadia Boulanger: Works (Delos/SWR Music)

By Norman Lebrecht on 3 March 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

In half a century of listening to records, I cannot recall ever hearing music by the noted French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. Revered by a stream of American (Copland, Harris, Carter, Glass) and British (Berkeley, Musgrave, Maw) pupils, the formidable Mademoiselle deferred to the music of her short-lived sister Lily and barely spoke of herself as a composer. Two releases, newly landed, may help to adjust that misperception. On Delos, an outpouring of early songs betray an uncritical adoration of Debussy, with touches of Saint-Saëns, Franck and a hint of the Russians. Nicole Cabell, Alek Shrader and Edwin Crossley-Mercer make the…

Christina Petrowska Quilico: Worlds Apart (Centrediscs)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 3 March 2017 Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Piano, Quebec Music

Worlds Apart Christina Petrowska Quilico Centrediscs, 2017. CMCCD 23717, 2 CD. 88 min 13 s. Christina Petrowska Quilico dropped a new album today – a cross-section of Canadian piano repertoire – that features a wide variety of post-modern compositional techniques. In this two-CD set, the first disc is entitled Classics with a Twist – a way to dip your big toe in the pool before jumping in headfirst in the second. With overt references to the titans of Romantic piano repertoire – Schumann, Brahms, and Chopin – Rea, Koprowski, and Gellman dish up the familiar in surprising ways. The second…

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