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Eastern Festival Orchestra with Santiago Rodriguez, piano
July 10, 2022 | 7:00 pm
GERARD SCHWARZ, conductor
Alan Benaroya, Music Director Chair
SANTIAGO RODRIGUEZ, piano
Umoja for Orchestra Valerie Coleman
Piano Concerto in a minor, Op. 16 Edvard Grieg
Allegro molto moderato
Adagio
Allegro moderato molto e marcato
Santiago Rodriguez, piano
Symphony No. 4 in f minor, Op. 36 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Andante sostenuto
Andante in modo di canzona
Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato
Finale: Allegro con brio
LOCATION: Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts, 733 Rivers St., Boone, NC 28608
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the Box Office at theschaefercenter@appstate.edu or 800-841-2787 or 828-262-4046.
ACCOMMODATION STATEMENT: Appalachian is committed to providing an inclusive experience for individuals with disabilities. If accommodations are needed in order to fully participate on the basis of a disability, contact the Office of Disability Resources (828.262.3056). It is recommended that accommodation requests be made two weeks prior to the event.
TICKETS:
$35 Adults
$20 Students
Free – Children 12 and younger with purchase of adult ticket
SHOWTIME:
Sunday, July 10, 2022 | 7pm
Doors open at 6pm
ABOUT EASTERN MUSIC FESTIVAL
For six decades, Eastern Music Festival (EMF), a nationally recognized classical music festival and summer educational program, has been produced on the campus of Guilford College, UNCG, and other venues in Greensboro, North Carolina. EMF is distinguished by its accomplished faculty, exhilarating repertoire, and world-renowned visiting artists under the artistic direction of Gerard Schwarz. A powerful teaching institution, EMF provides encouragement and guidance to over 265 young musicians from across the country and around the globe as they take pivotal steps towards careers in the performing arts. More information can be found at easternmusicfestival.org
ABOUT GERARD SCHWARZ
2022 marks GERARD SCHWARZ’ 18th year with Eastern Music Festival (EMF). He joined EMF as Music Advisor in 2005, became Principal Conductor in 2006, and Music Director in 2008.
Internationally recognized for his moving performances, innovative programming and extensive catalogue of recordings, American conductor Gerard Schwarz serves as Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival, Palm Beach Symphony, and Mozart Orchestra of New York and is Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. He holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra. Schwarz is a renowned interpreter of 19th century German, Austrian, and Russian repertoire, in addition to his noted work with contemporary American composers.
His vast repertoire includes major 20th century ballets by composers Stravinsky, Strauss, Bartók, Ravel, and Prokofiev, as well as multi-disc cycles of works by Schumann, Strauss, Wagner, and Stravinsky. Schwarz’s dedication to the promotion of American music is also represented with his pioneering cycles of 26 American symphonists such as William Schuman, David Diamond, Walter Piston, Paul Creston, Peter Mennin, Alan Hovhaness, and Howard Hanson. The Howard Hanson cycle, first released on Delos, was a mainstay on Billboard’s classical music best-selling list for 41 weeks, earned GRAMMY nominations and was named 1989 Record of the Year by Stereo Review. In addition to his numerous recordings with the Seattle Symphony, he has also recorded with the Czech Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, London Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, and Eastern Music Festival.
Schwarz is also known for his operatic performances in addition to his concert work, having appeared with the Juilliard Opera, Kirov Opera, Mostly Mozart Festival, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera – where he has led 21 productions – and Washington National Opera conducting the operas of Wagner, Janáček, Strauss, Mozart, Bizet, Weber, Debussy, Bartók, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Hagen, and Gluck.
In his nearly five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades. Over the years, he has received seven Emmy Awards, 14 Grammy Award nominations, eight ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards. He was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America and has received numerous honorary doctorates, including from his alma mater, The Juilliard School. In 2002, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Schwarz with its Concert Music Award and in 2003 the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences gave Schwarz its first “IMPACT” lifetime achievement award.
ABOUT SANTIAGO RODRIGUEZ
Santiago Rodriguez has been called “a phenomenal pianist” (The New York Times) and “among the finest pianists in the world” (The Baltimore Sun). He has performed internationally with leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Weimar Philharmonic, the Yomiuri-Nippon Symphony Orchestra of Japan, the Tampere Philharmonic of Finland, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, Seattle, Indianapolis, American Composers’, and Houston Symphony Orchestras, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., and the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Rodriguez has appeared in recital at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Montreal’s Theatre Maisonneuve, the Santander Festival in Spain, Alice Tully Hall in New York, The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, and at the prestigious Ravenna Festival in Italy, where the critics proclaimed that “he conquered the audience.” Rodriguez made his Carnegie Hall debut under the baton of Dennis Russell Davis, and also traveled to Finland for a series of concerts with Eri Klas, conducting. In the 2016-2017 season, Rodriguez had return engagements in China, Korea, and Taiwan.
As a chamber musician, Rodriguez has enjoyed collaborations with illustrious ensembles, such as the Guarneri String Quartet and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He also toured extensively as member of a piano trio with Ruggiero Ricci and Nathaniel Rosen, and he has performed with such distinguished musicians as Walter Trampler, Ransom Wilson, Gervaise de Peyer, Aurora Nátola-Ginastera, and Robert McDuffie.
Rodriguez’ vast repertoire of concertos and recital programs reflect his great versatility and musical interests. Commanding a repertoire of over 65 concertos, he has performed concertos of Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Gershwin, Liszt, Schumann, Franck, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff over his 35-year performing career. His all-encompassing list also includes the more unusual works of Khachaturian, Strauss, Saint-Saëns, MacDowell, Falla, Pónce, Surinach, Albéniz, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Previn. His recital list, displaying a stunning variety of solo works, ranges from the music of J.S. Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy, to Scriabin, Prokofiev, Albéniz, Granados, and Ginastera.
One of today’s foremost interpreters of the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rodriguez has performed all of the composer’s major piano works in concert. He is currently recording The Rachmaninoff Edition, which, when completed, will encompass the entire catalog of Rachmaninoff’s original solo piano compositions. The three volumes that have been released have received international acclaim. In reviewing Volumes 1 and 2, Bryce Morrison of Gramophone stated that “Santiago Rodriguez, the Cuban-American virtuoso, is born for Rachmaninoff, and I doubt whether any of the works on these two discs have often been played with such a spellbinding mix of high-born virtuosity and poetic glamour.” Volume 2 was awarded the Washington Area Music Award for best classical recording of 1995, and Volume 3 was selected by Classical Pulse as one of the best recordings of 1995.
