12.18.2018: Antonin Dvorak -- "America Is An Idea, Not Just A Place" -- Carnegie Hall Concert
When Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, "From The New World" was premiered on December 16, 1893, in New York City's Carnegie Hall, then just established for 2 years, a new phase was inaugurated in Classical music composition. The United States, for the first time, became the source basis for the establishment of what that composer called "a great and noble school of music." The history of New York City's central role in one of the most important chapters in the latter-century advancement of the Classical tradition into America represents an untapped resource for generating new interest in the short-lived but groundbreaking American educational institution called the National Conservatory of Music. Between 1892-1895, barriers of ethnicity, gender and wealth were overthrown exactly at the time that they were being otherwise re-erected, both through the United States Supreme Court and by social convention, in the post-Civil War South and North.
Now, on December 18, 2018, the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture will celebrate this 125th "Dvorak at Carnegie Hall" anniversary on that very same stage, at Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, with a concert and historical retrospective entitled: “Antonin Dvorak: America Is An Idea, Not Just A Place”. It will feature choral and instrumental works of Dvorak and his collaborators, including Johannes Brahms and Harry T. Burleigh.
TIAN JIANG
Concert
Pianist
Since his acclaimed debut at Carnegie Hall in 1989, Tian Jiang has become recognized as one of the first virtuoso pianists to emerge from the People’s Republic of China after the stark years of the Cultural Revolution. Praised for his "shining, crisp, energetic and colorfully illuminated playing” by The New York Times, a subsequent profile on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” with Charles Kuralt further celebrated the sweet irony of this remarkable artist’s rich, imaginative interpretations: that this music he had been forbidden to hear, let alone play as a child, had become his life.
Tian first came to international attention when he appeared with Vladimir Ashkenazy in a BBC film about his historic visit to China in 1980. In 1981, Tian was one of the five young musicians chosen by Isaac Stern to come to the US and take part in the first cultural exchange program between China and the United States. Consequently Tian studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Later he continued at the Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School.
In 1995, Tian joined the famed CAMI (Columbia Artists Management Inc.) roster as the first mainland Chinese concert pianist. When he substituted for Arcadi Volodos at a Gala Concert in 1998, playing an all Mozart’s program, Tian became an overnight success and the invitations started to pour in. Daniel Cariaga in The Los Angeles Times characterized his playing as ''a deeply persuasive Mozartean'' saying that “Tian Jiang achieved an exquisite performance who delivers the full spectrum of the composer’s virtues - wit, pathos, brilliance, and serenity in this buoyant performance.”
Captivating audiences from North America to South Africa and from Europe to the Far East, Tian has been enthusiastically received in concerto appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Mozart Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Tian is proud to be the first Chinese pianist to have toured his homeland with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on its historic visit to China in 2000 and he has collaborated with conductors such as Daniele Gatti, Zubin Mehta, Ettore Stratta and Gerald Schwartz.
As a recording artist, Tian has 12 albums to his credit, including his original composition “Shanghai Dream” and “Tian Jiang Live at Carnegie Hall”.