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| Nadia Shpachenko |
International pianist and Cal Poly Pomona professor Nadia Shpachenko will present a solo recital themed “Composers Inspiring Composers” on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall.
“My program will include a great variety of works from many time periods and styles that should offer a treat to concertgoers of many tastes,” Shpachenko says. “Each piece on the program was inspired by another composer's work or style.”
Shpachenko's show will open with Ukrainian composer Yury Ishchenko's newly written Four Mazurkas and a Touch of Chopin, followed by Brahms' poignant Variations on a theme by Schumann, Op. 9.
“In 1853, Clara Schumann wrote her own set of variations on this theme and played them for Brahms, who responded by composing his Op. 9 and arranging the publishing of both variation sets. Brahms wrote this set of variations in 1854 as sort of a requiem to Robert Schumann, who was at the time in an insane asylum,” Shpachenko says.
She will then play two contemporary pieces, Homage to Ravel by a Greek composer Iannis Xenakis and Cadenza (con or senza Beethoven) by American composer Frederic Rzewski. The program will close with Liszt's exciting paraphrase of Verdi's Opera Rigoletto and Ravel's brilliant Toccata from Tombeau de Couperin.
An accomplished pianist, Shpachenko has performed extensively in solo and chamber music recitals and with orchestras in North America and Europe and enjoys applying her deep interpretation to new repertoire by performing and premiering music by contemporary composers. In addition to bringing out new facets of the traditional repertoire, Shpachenko is also touring a series of lecture-recitals exploring the relations between modern art and modern music.
Shpachenko has a second performance of this program scheduled on March 2 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts Sundays Live series. Visit www.ullanta.com/nadia to learn more and listen to some of her performances.
Tickets to the event at Cal Poly Pomona are $7 and are available at the Music Publicity Office or online at https://www.zaptix.com/group/cal_poly_pomona_music_department.