Eastman presents all-Medtner chamber program at Carnegie Hall this Sunday (Oct 27)

On Sunday, October 27, Eastman School of Music presents an all-Medtner chamber recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City. Pianist Cahill Smith, a doctoral candidate at the celebrated music school, makes his Carnegie Hall debut alongside five of his fellow Eastman musicians in a program of solo piano, vocal, and chamber music by Nikolai Medtner. Marking the first time such a survey of the Russian composer’s works will have been showcased at Carnegie Hall since he appeared there himself in 1930, the concert is presented in memory of Douglas Lowry, Eastman’s late Dean.
 
Composing at a time when music was evolving in radically new directions, Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) sought to find his own way forward without rejecting the achievements of the past. Eastman’s upcoming concert will feature works spanning the whole of his long career, from Op. 1, No. 1 to the posthumously-published piano quintet. Medtner often drew inspiration from literature, and the concert will include settings of Goethe, Pushkin, and Tyutchev.
 
One of a growing number of musicians who are proponents of Medtner’s works, Cahill Smith explains: “It is the kind of music that becomes richer with subsequent hearings. … Medtner might come as a breath of fresh air to many, and to a few – a revelation. His music is organically connected to the musical past, yet it is relentlessly inventive and original.” Cahill’s blog post titled “Why Medtner Matters,” which includes a link to his instructive YouTube video, is available on the Eastman web site.
 
The pianist’s own way with Medtner’s music has drawn notice. As his recital sponsor remarked, “In Cahill’s hands, the music is not just played to be heard, it is played to be felt, and his performances of Medtner’s music are exceptionally wonderful.”
 
*          *          *          *          *
 
About the Eastman School of Music
 
The Eastman School of Music ranks among the nation’s premier music schools, boasting Guggenheim Fellows, Grammy, and ASCAP Award winners on its distinguished faculty. The school has been commended and recognized nationwide for giving its students an intensive professional education, entrepreneurial opportunities in their musical disciplines, and the experience of a broader liberal arts education within the University of Rochester. Eastman’s prominent alumni include opera singers Renée Fleming, Anthony Dean Griffey, Joyce Castle, and the late William Warfield; jazz musicians Ron Carter, Steve Gadd, and Chuck Mangione; composer-conductor Maria Schneider; and composers Dominick Argento, Charles Strouse, Michael Torke, and Jeff Beal. The School presents more than 700 public concerts a year and hosts a variety of prestigious festivals and events, including, most recently, the International Society of Bassists Convention and the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival.
 
 
Eastman School of Music at Carnegie Hall:
 
Sun, Oct 27 at 7:30pm
New York, NY
Weill Recital Hall
 
Nikolai Medtner: piano, vocal, and chamber music
Performed by musicians from Eastman School of Music
 
Cahill Smith, piano
 
Yunjin Kim, soprano
Ji-Yeon Lee, violin
Hirono Sugimoto Borter, violin
Wendy Richman, viola
Philip Borter, cello
 
This event is sponsored by the George D. and Freida B. Abraham Foundation.
 
 
www.esm.rochester.edu
 
www.facebook.com/EastmanSchool
 
twitter.com/eastmanschool
 
 
#          #          #
 
© 21C Media Group, October 2013