Newtown To Welcome Back The Russian Pianist Katia Skanavi

Musical reviewers the world over rave about her: “ ...one of the most beautiful touches of our times … she played with unleashed thunder and great delicacy … a musician who thinks, deepens her interpretations to the most intimate vehemence ... a profound phrasing …”  Yet Katia Skanavi is modesty incarnate on the stage, using no artifice, and only allowing a quick smile and a bow before sitting at the piano to unleash her marvelous talent.

Luckily for Newtown, this astounding pianist will be back for a highly anticipated return engagement at the fourth concert of the Newtown Friends of Music’s 2008-09 season, in their 31st year of bringing music to the stage at Edmond Town Hall.

Born in Moscow, Katia Skanavi has been impressing audiences, critics and fellow performers alike with her vibrant pianism and sensitive musicality.  She is a favored partner of musicians of the caliber of Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer and Kurt Masur, both as a concerto soloist and a chamber musician, and she is prized for her command of a rich and vivid tonal palette, and a virtuosity that is allied to intuitive and thoughtful interpretation.

Ms Skanavi’s repertoire is an eclectic mix of music from the classical period to contemporary music.  She has recorded several CDs, mainly for the Lyrinx label. Her discs of works by Schumann, Rachmaninov and character pieces by Tchaikovsky, recorded live in Marseille, were highly regarded by the critics, and a Chopin recital (on the Pro Piano label) was named Classical Recording of the Month by Gramophone magazine. Her most recent Lyrinx recording is dedicated to works by Chopin composed between 1843 and 1845.

For her second appearance in Newtown, on Sunday, March 22, at 3 pm, Ms Skanavi will perform on the town hall’s concert grand piano, starting with Schubert’s complex and intensely dramatic late Sonata in A minor, Op. posth. 143. A recently composed Piano Sonata by the contemporary Australian composer Carl Vine will lead into the intermission.

Ms Skanavi will then dedicate the second half to contrasting works by Chopin, beginning with Andante Spianato, Grande Polonaise Brilliante, Op. 22 and concluding with the tormented drama of Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Opus 35.

Tickets are $18 for adults and $16 for seniors. Students grades K through 12 are admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. The box office will open one hour before the start of the concert.

Parking is free behind Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street, and the facility is fully handicap accessible with all seating providing excellent viewing and acoustics.

An informal reception following the concert will offer the opportunity to mingle with the artist.

For further information and reservations call 426-6470 or visit NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org.