On April 4, 2009, pianist Tania Stavreva will make her New York Recital Debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, a performance highlighted by the United States Premiere of Israeli composer Gil Shohat’s Sparks from the Beyond. The afternoon’s program will showcase Ms. Stavreva’s specialization in 20th- and 21st- century music through a diverse selection of composers, including Alberto Ginastera, Alexander Scriabin, Carl Vine, Claude Debussy, and Alexander Vladigerov. Ms. Stavreva is the recent winner of Artists International Presentations annual performance competition, which awards its recipients with a New York City recital debut.

Bulgarian-born pianist Tania Stavreva has established herself as a gifted young artist in the standard repertoire, as well as a devoted student of 20th- and 21st-century works. Ms. Stavreva is a graduate of Bulgaria's "Dobrin Petkov" School for gifted young musicians, where she studied with renowned pedagogue Rositsa Ivancheva for thirteen years. She went on to earn her Bachelor's Degree from Boston Conservatory, where she was a student of Michael Lewin and the winner of the 2005 Chamber Music Honors Competition, the 2006 Lee Piano Scholarship and the 2007 Piano Honors Competition. She is one of the first pianists of her generation to perform contemporary classical music at such rock venues as Webster Hall in New York and Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Ms. Stavreva has appeared with the Boston Conservatory Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia Perugina under conductors Bruce Hangen and Enrico Marconi. She is a regular participant at numerous summer festivals, including Boston’s New Music Festival, Pianofest in the Hamptons, Music Fest Perugia and Varna Summer International Music Festival in Bulgaria.

Central to Tania Stavreva’s recital is the United States Premiere of Israeli composer Gil Shohat’s Sparks from the Beyond, which won Mr. Shohat the 1997 Arthur Rubinstein Composition Competition. Both at home and abroad, Gil Shohat is one of the most important and influential personalities of Israeli classical music. He is the composer of nine large-scale symphonies, ten concertos for various instruments, three operas, various oratorios, cantatas, solo vocal pieces, and dozens of chamber and piano pieces, as well as the performer of more than 80 concerts a year worldwide, both as a conductor and pianist. Divided into seven short movements, Sparks from the Beyond is inspired by the philosophies and symbolism of Kabbalah, the mystical teachings of Judaism. In the same way that Kabbalah seeks to explain the relationship between an infinite and eternal Creator with the mortal universe, each ‘spark’ aims to illustrate the nature of some of life’s most universal and esoteric concepts in an attempt to achieve spiritual realization: Infinity, Existence, Motion, Material, Faith, Beauty and Love.

In addition to presenting the US Premiere of Sparks from the Beyond, Ms. Stavreva will perform a variety of fundamental 20th- and 21st-century repertoire: Alberto Ginastera's Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22, which exemplifies the stylistic traits associated with Ginastera's "subjective nationalist" period, in which he integrates national identity and compositional method through a fusion of lively rhythmic figurations; Alexander Scriabin’s Vers la Flamme, a brief but epic work which careens from a somber, burbling opening to an ecstatic portrayal of a cosmic rupture; Australian composer Carl Vine’s Sonata No. 1, a work which draws on the composer’s experience in writing instrumental, theatre, film, television, and electronic music; a selection from both the first and second books of Claude Debussy’s Préludes, individual masterpieces that represent the pinnacle of Debussy's keyboard art; and Alexander Vladigerov’s Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Song “Dilmano Dilbero”, a work which recognizes both Ms. Stavreva’s national heritage and passion for contemporary composition.

Artists International Presentations Inc. is a publicly supported non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting outstandingly gifted artists from around the world. Formed in 1972 by Leo B. Ruiz, Artists International takes pride in the career development of the many outstanding artists it has discovered through its annual competition for classically-trained musicians, which awards each winner with a New York City recital debut. Many of the competition’s past winners are now active as international concert artists; others are members of opera companies and major orchestras or serve as artist-teachers at colleges, universities and music schools in the United States and abroad.

Tickets are $25 General Admission, and $20 for students and senior citizens with valid identification. Tickets are on sale at Weill Recital Hall (57th Street & 7th Avenue)

TANIA STAVREVA, PIANO
New York Recital Debut
Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 5:30 PM
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall

PROGRAM
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983): Sonata No.1, Op. 22 (1952)
Allegro marcato
Presto misterioso
Adagio molto appassionato
Ruvido ed ostinato
Gil Shohat (b.1973): Sparks from the Beyond (1996-1997) - US PREMIERE
Sparks from Infinity…
Sparks of Existence
Sparks of Motion
Sparks of Material
Sparks of Faith…
Sparks of Beauty
Sparks of Love
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915): Vers la Flamme, poème, Op.72 (1914)
Carl Vine (b. 1954): Sonata No.1 (1990)
I.
II. Leggiero e legato
Claude Debussy (1862-1915): Préludes
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir: Modéré, from Book I (1910)
Bruyères: Calme, from Book II (1912-1913)
Alexander Vladigerov (1933-1993): Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Song “Dilmano Dilbero”, Op. 2 (1954)

For further information, please contact Kirshbaum Demler & Associates
Amelia Kusar: 212-222-4843 | akusar@kirshdem.com