Associate Music Professor Nadia Shpachenko-Gottesman has released her first major album, which features world premiere recordings of works for piano, toy piano, percussion and electronics.
“Woman at the New Piano” features six original contemporary pieces from Music Professor Peter Yates and composers Tom Flaherty, Adam Schoenberg and James Matheson. Shpachenko-Gottesman performs four solo pieces, and two duets with pianist Genevieve Feiwen Lee. Shpachenko-Gottesman’s album is the authoritative recording for all of the compositions.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to get to premiere and record these pieces,” Shpachenko-Gottesman says. “I think this music deserves to be heard and to be admired, and I am very happy to have recorded what will be seen as the definitive version of these works. I am hoping that other pianists will get excited about this repertoire and will start performing it as well.”
On “Woman at the New Piano,” Shpachenko-Gottesman plays piano and percussion — sometimes all at once. “In one piece I play gong and drum with my feet while using my hands to play on the piano, and in another one I play two drums with my feet while playing on the piano,” she says with a laugh. “All of the pieces are real jewels. It is really quite an exciting exposé of contemporary piano music, and is very interesting to watch.”
Shpachenko-Gottesman calls the repertoire “Music for a New B’ak’tun,” which refers to the beginning of a new Mayan calendar cycle in 2013. “The pieces definitely touch upon the themes of transformation, renewal and innovation,” she says. “’Woman at the New Piano’ ties into that idea of new sounds and a new era.”
On Sunday, Oct. 5, at 6 p.m., she will perform at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theatre for their Sundays Live program. The event is free and open to the public.
Grants and a sabbatical in the spring of 2013 helped Shpachenko-Gottesman work nonstop on “Woman at the New Piano” for nearly two years. She performed pieces from the album at Cal Poly Pomona in May 2013, and will tour nationally through March.
“Woman at the New Piano” is available for purchase on Amazon and at her concerts.
For more information about Shpachenko-Gottesman and future performances, visit https://www.cpp.edu/~shpachenko.