Sunday October 6 7:00 PM 2024
Elegies and Visions: A Musical Journey with Liudmila Georgievskaya and Thomas Schwan, piano
Join us for a captivating program of piano music that explores themes of dreams, childhood, the supernatural, and spirituality. It promises a poignant and imaginative musical journey and exceptional experience.
Pianists Liudmila Georgievskaya and Thomas Schwan begin with piano four-hands music, featuring Franz Schubert's haunting 'Fantasy in F minor' and Maurice Ravel's whimsical 'Ma mère l'oye.' Liudmila Georgievskaya performs Boston College Professor Ralf Gawlick's "Mysterium Doloris Quintae" for solo piano, weaving together pieces from Bach, Mozart, and traditional children's songs worldwide. The work's inception is a line from the Gospel according to St. Matthew: "But Jesus said, 'Let the children come to me, and don't prevent them. For such is the kingdom of heaven'". (Matthew 19:14)
Dr. Liudmila Georgievskaya
Concert pianist, recording artist, and an internationally sought-after pedagogue, Dr.Liudmila Georgievskaya is hailed for her "absolute art, technique, and musicality" by Scherzo Magazine (Spain) and "a sharp, inquisitive mind shaping the performance" by The Guardian (UK). Winner of top prizes in more than a dozen national and international piano competitions, she has performed in Russia, Italy, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, France, Netherlands, England, Hungary, Panama, and the United States, with performances broadcast on radio and television programs in Russia, the United States, Uzbekistan, Italy, and Vatican City. She often appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Russia, Asia, Latin America, and the United States.
Her solo CD with music by Beethoven and Schumann, published in 2013 by Odradek Records, was received enthusiastically by the international press, and won two Global Music Awards. She is a member of Voices of Change, one of the most distinguished new music ensembles in the United States. She also performs in a piano duo with her husband, Thomas Schwan, and with her sister, Olga Georgievskaya. An inheritor of the Russian piano school, she studied in Moscow with Tatiana Galitskaya and Liudmila Roschina, both former pupils of the legendary Russian pianist Samuil Feinberg, Alexander Goldenweiser's pupil and disciple.
She graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory cum laude. She then completed a post-graduate course with Sergio Perticaroli at the Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome (Italy), followed by the Artist Certificate program at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, U.S.A.) with Joaquín Achúcarro. She earned her Doctorate in Piano Performance degree with Dr. Pamela Mia Paul at the University of North Texas. Dr. Georgievskaya is now a full-time Professor of Piano at the renowned University of North Texas in Denton, U.S.A. She is in high demand for recitals and masterclasses worldwide.www.liudmilageorgievskaya.org
Thomas Schwan
Thomas Schwan (Milano, 1985) is an Italian–German pianist and composer. As a pianist, he performed extensively in Italy, the Netherlands, France, England, Russia, Panama, and the United States. Music honors include First Prize at the World Bach Competition in Boulder, Colorado (2020) and the Honors Diploma and Monte dei Paschi di Siena Prize from Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy (2011). While cultivating a repertoire that spans the history of Western music, he currently specializes in the music of J.S. Bach. He has recently given multiple live performances of the complete Well-Tempered Clavier. His W.T.C. interpretations, recorded live in two recitals in 2019 and 2022, have gained an extraordinary following on YouTube and are widely appreciated by audiences, critics, and fellow musicians. Current and future projects include the performance and recording of The Art of the Fugue and the complete Chopin Nocturnes. He was deeply influenced by the instruction and mentorship of pianists Joaquín Achúcarro, under whom he studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Accademia Chigiana in Siena, and Pamela Mia Paul, his major professor at the University of North Texas in Denton. He is now a Joaquín Achúcarro Legacy Pianist.
As a composer, his music is performed or commissioned by members of the Asko|Schoenberg Ensemble Amsterdam, Voices of Change, Dallas Chamber Music Society, Meadows Wind Ensemble, Quartetto Mitja, Trio Chénier, and other renowned ensembles and soloists in Europe and America. In 2017, he was awarded the Odyssée Artistic Residency as a composer and pianist at Abbaye Royale de Saint-Riquier (France), where he premiered a newly commissioned work onsite. He holds degrees from the University of North Texas (D.M.A., 2021), where he studied piano with P.M. Paul and composition with J. Klein, and Southern Methodist University (Artist Certificate, 2009; M.M., 2011 and 2014), where he studied piano with J. Achúcarro and composition with K. Hanlon. Former teachers include G. Galletta, A. Fortuna, G. Possio, E. Brusa, and S. Sargon. He taught piano and composition masterclasses in Italy, the Netherlands, and Panama and maintains an active performing and teaching schedule worldwide. www.thomasschwan.com