Pianist Michael Brown will perform a benefit recital for Chamber Music Sedona on Saturday, Oct. 1, at 2 p.m. at the Sedona Creative Life Center, 333 Schnebly Hill Road.
Brown is a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Recipient described by The New York Times as a “young piano visionary” and “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.”
The recital is made possible with support from James and Pam Pease and presented in cooperation with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra.
A native New Yorker, Brown earned dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald, and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. His early teachers were Herbert Rothgarber and Adam Kent, and he has worked with pianists Leon Fleisher and Richard Goode. He is equally committed as a pianist and composer; his artistry is reflected in a creative approach to programming that often interweaves the classics with contemporary works and his own compositions.
Brown is one of three pianists selected by pianist Sir András Schiff for his “Building Bridges” series during the 2016-17 season. As a result, he will make debut solo recitals in Berlin, Frankfurt, Antwerp, Zurich, and New York’s 92nd Street Y.
“I just returned from recitals in Italy as part of the series and I’m excited to perform this weekend in Sedona and Flagstaff,” Brown said. “My Sedona concert program — recently performed in Milano and Firenze — includes both Mendelssohn’s Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35, and Beethoven’s Fifteen Variations and Fugue in E-flat Major “Eroica,” Op. 35 that features innovative pianistic writing combined with masterful contrapuntal technique. Also on the program are two American works, “Touches” by Leonard Bernstein, a theme and variations that he composed for the 1981 Van Cliburn competition, and an original work, “Constellations and Toccata,” that I composed in 2012.”
Ilona Oltuski in GetClassical.org, first published July/August 2015 in German Piano News, wrote that by promoting Schiff’s initiative under the heading of “Building Bridges — András Schiff Presents Young Pianists“ and “András Schiff Selects,” Schiff is making sure that the European and North-American music scene is ready for his project. In the next few years, the series will feature performances in Brussels, Antwerp, San Francisco and Vancouver,” Schiff said. Schiff was awarded Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2014.
Brown’s recent highlights include debuts with the Seattle and Maryland symphony orchestras, the New York Youth Symphony in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and the FSO.
He joined the roster of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program in 2015 and performs with the Society in Alice Tully Hall and on tour. In addition to his concerto engagements and solo recitals, he frequently performs in a trio with violinist Elena Urioste and cellist Nicholas Canellakis and in recitals with each of them.
Co-host of ConversationswithNick.com, Brown and Canellakis candidly interview acclaimed artists from Emanuel Ax to Itzhak Perlman. Brown was the featured pianist during the 2015 and 2016 Sedona Winter Music Festivals.
“This will be a wonderful opportunity to hear Mr. Brown in Sedona in a beautiful and intimate space during a 65-minute program followed by a ‘meet the artist’ chocolate-and-champagne reception,” said CMS artistic director Bert Harclerode. “We’re delighted to collaborate on a fifth partnership with the FSO following the Amadeus Trio, Zuill Bailey, Sharon Isbin and the Naughton Twins. By contrast and comparison to his Friday night concert in Flagstaff, patrons will experience music-making up close and personal, while Friday night enjoying the sonic textures and dynamics of Ravel’s magnificent orchestration backed by nearly 75 musicians.”
Asked about his musical background, Brown said, “My musical life began at age 2 as I danced in front of the TV to the songs of Raffi. By age 3, I had listened to Billy Joel’s Piano Man so many times that I wore out the cassette tape. At four, I realized I wanted to be the reincarnation of Mozart so I embarked upon a life of exploration, some isolation, but mostly pure and utter joy.”
Brown is a Steinway Artist, who in his spare time, enjoys cooking kale in a variety of ways, reading and obsessing over American history, memorizing obscure Woody Allen films, and the dream of walking 30,000 steps in one day.
Tickets for the matinee performance and reception are $75 per person and may be purchased online at ChamberMusicSedona.org. The ticket includes the post-concert “meet the artist” reception.
The Chamber Music Society’s next concert will be Sunday, Nov. 9, when the Los Angeles-based cello quintet SAKURA performs music from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and more.
Chamber Music Sedona is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to enrich the lives of Northern Arizona residents and visitors by presenting the finest international, national and regional performing artists and to promote a love of the performing arts through arts education programs.
Chamber Music Sedona is supported in part by the city of Sedona and more than 200 Sedona and regional households.
