Sunday, November 16, 2014
9:30 AM |
This Week in Culture in Dumaguete: MMCO’s Gershwin Plus Features Pianist Cristine Coyiuto
Pianist
Cristine Coyiuto and conductor
Josefino “Chino” Toledo of the
Metro Manila Concert Orchestra (MMCO) will collaborate once again in
Gershwin Plus, a concert that features George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, plus works by other composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and Anton Dvorak.
The concert makes its national premiere in Dumaguete City at the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium on 21 November 2014, Friday at 8 p.m. The company will do two more shows on November 22, Saturday, with a matinee at 3 p.m. and a gala at 8 p.m.
Coyiuto says the spirited melodies of the late American composer inspired her to select the piece for the concert. “After having performed the
Khachaturian Concerto last year and the
Mozart K488 this past July, I thought it would be quite interesting and fun to do a different genre this time with the MMCO—the Gershwin
Concerto in F,” she says.
“What attracted me most to this piece was its exciting rhythms, with a touch of Charleston dance and blues, the unique combination of jazz and classical elements, interjected with a bit of the American Broadway theater, ” she adds.
Ms. Coyiuto is considered as one of the country’s most outstanding and admired pianists. She continues to enjoy overwhelmingly critical acclaim. Her concerts have earned her such titles as Pianist’s Pianist and Poetess of the Piano. She has been hailed a “virtuoso” for “carving out singing tones.”
A recipient of a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, New York, Coyiuto was a lauréate of the Académie Internationale de Musique “Maurice Ravel” in St. Jean-de-Luz, France, and Genève Conservatoire in Switzerland. She has given numerous recitals and appeared as an orchestral soloist in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines.
Mr. Toledo, meanwhile, is founding music director and conductor of the MMCO. He has been given the Outstanding Young Man award. He is noted for premiering works of Filipino and Asian composers. As conductor of the MMCO, he has led orchestra in 14 concert seasons, all to critical acclaim. In September 2013, his work,
Mga Sulyap sa Simbahan ng Quiapo mula sa Kalye Echague for 18 instruments was premiered by the New Juilliard Ensemble at the Juilliard’s Peter Sharp Theatre in New York City.
Completing the Gershwin Plus program are Bernstein’s Overture from
Candide, Copland’s
Rodeo, and Dvorák’s
American Suite, plus selections from John Williams’
Harry Potter Suite and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
The Phantom of the Opera.
Joining the MMCO in the Dumaguete concerts are flutist Crystal Rodis, who will be performing Griffes’
Poem, and violinist Kristine Claire Uchi-Galano, who will be performing Tchaikovsky’s
Violin Concerto Third Movement.
The concert is presented by the Silliman University Cultural Affairs Committee (CAC) as the first show in its second semester roster of its 52nd Cultural Season, with the support of Prudential Guarantee, CocoGrande Hotel, PGA Cars, Antulang Beach Resort, Bethel Guest House, OrientWind Travel and Tours, Air 21, Cebu Pacific, Lyric Piano, and Lettered L.
Tickets are available at P200, P300, and P500. All tickets and season passes for Luce Auditorium shows are available for sale at the CAC Office at the College of Performing and Visual Arts Building II, and at the theater lobby before the show begins. For ticket reservations and other inquiries, call (035) 422-4365 or 09173235953. Labels: cultural affairs committee, dumaguete, music, negros, silliman
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