AMERICAN GUILD OF ORGANISTS

MILWAUKEE CHAPTER



  


7 pm - Christopher Taylor, piano - Messiaen, "Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus

  • 07 Dec 2012
  • 7:00 PM
  • St. Paul's Episcopal, Milwaukee
PianoArts
presents
Christopher Taylor, piano

Olivier Messiaen:
Vingt regards sur l'enfant-J
ésus

Friday, Dec. 7, 2012, 7 pm
Saint Paul's Episcopal Church

914 E. Knapp St.
Milwaukee, WI


Tickets $30 adult/$15 student
414/255-0801

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For those looking for holiday music of a more cerebral twistthis season, Milwaukee is in luck. PianoArts is pleased to present pianist Christopher Taylor, renowned for his interpretation of Messiaen’s monumental work, Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant Jésus, in a performance of this important work at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, 914 East Knapp Street, at 7:00 PM on Friday, December 7, 2012. Tickets are available online at www.pianoarts.org or by calling 414-255-0801. In addition, Timothy Benson, organist at Saint Paul’s Church, will present a lecture and performance of Messiaen’s work on Thursday, December 6 at 7:00 PM at Saint Paul’s. Admission is free with a ticket to the December 7 concert.



Vingt Regardsis a collection of twenty short contemplations on baby Jesus by God the Father, the Mother Virgin Mary, the angels, wise men, birds from the heights, silence, time, the stars, and the cross with the portentous reminder of Jesus’s fate. The music is a kaleidoscope of radiant colors, birdsongs, mini-orchestral sounds, Christmas bells, and Hindu drums, ranging from tender sweetness, to awesome mystery, to brutality. It is a piece that was written for a brilliant young pianist named Yvonn Loriod, who later became his wife.



Of Christopher Taylor’s 2008 performance, the Los Angeles Times wrote “Messiaen’s mystical music invites out-of-body experiences. ... Christopher Taylor’s spellbinding performance...found a way to make the piano sound as if it could levitate.” Sue Medford, PianoArts Founder, and Artistic and Education Director, heard Mr. Taylor’s performance at Ravinia in 2003 and always wanted to be able to present it to Milwaukee. Of that performance, she said “Hearing Mr. Taylor perform, by memory, the entire 174 page score of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards was an amazing and profound musical experience. Few pianists perform the entire work due to its technical and physical demands, and Taylor is one who performs it regularly. The audience was mesmerized by his dazzling technique and the sheer endurance and stamina that the music demanded. It was unforgettable.”

In a 2010, review, the Los Angeles Times also wrote, “… In fact, Taylor possesses one of the great keyboard techniques of our time and has a probing mind, musical and otherwise. Two years ago, here in the academy’s intimate recital venue, Hahn Hall, he performed Messiaen’s epic, two-hour “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus”(Twenty Gazes Upon the Child Jesus) with such pianistic rigor and spiritual intensity that he made the keys all but levitate.” When Ms. Medford learned that Mr. Taylor would be performingVingt Regards in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she made it her mission to get him here in Milwaukee.

Christopher Taylor stands out as an innovative musician who is “frighteningly talented” (The New York Times). He has concertized around the globe and, at home in the United States, appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, and Houston Symphony among many others. As a soloist he has performed in New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls, Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Ravinia and Aspen festivals. Christopher Taylor is Professor of Piano at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been honored with an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he is the winner of the Kapell Competition, the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the Bronze Medal at the Van Cliburn Competition. He records for the JonathanDigital label. He is also a member of the PianoArts Honorary Board.

The December 7thperformance is the first in a new Artists Series being presented by PianoArts that will showcase the great repertory written for the piano performed by leading concert artists. To augment the Messiaen experience, Saint Paul’s organist, Timothy Benson will explore the life and music of Olivier Messiaen, the evening before Christopher Taylor’s performance, Thursday, December 6 at 7:00 PM. He will begin with a performance of Messiaen’s first organ work, the stirring Le Banquet Céleste, written when the composer was only eighteen. Sixteen years later and having experienced the full horrors of World War II, Messiaen wrote his most ambitious work, Vingt Regards, which Mr. Benson will discuss with musical examples.

About PianoArts:

Based in Milwaukee, PianoArts' mission is to foster appreciation and performance of classical music by identifying and mentoring a new generation of pianists with exceptional musical and verbal communication skills and by presenting them to diverse audiences. The highest profile event that fulfills this mission is the presentation of a biennial competition and music festival for some of North America’s most talented musicians, ages 15 through 20. Prizes and scholarships are substantial, judges are world class and three finalists have the opportunity to perform full concertos with the acclaimed Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Additional events include opportunities for performance as PianoArtists-in-Residence, at PianoArts Soirees, and in PianoArts Student-to-Student school programs. In keeping with PianoArts' philosophy of the importance of staying in touch with present day audiences and future professionals, many PianoArts winners continue to serve as advisors to the organization even as their careers grow.


In addition to the new Artists Series, this season PianoArts is pleased to be collaborating with the Milwaukee Symphony orchestra in a new piano concerto competition for Wisconsin pianists ages 11-15 to be held in June 2013. This competition will be held in conjunction with a Music Festival called “Music in Two Cities-Vienna and Paris.” All events will take place at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.






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