Internationally acclaimed pianist and performance researcher Dr. Donna Coleman traces the musical relationships between Johann Sebastian Bach and Fryderyk Chopin and composers living and working principally in Havana, Cuba from c. 1840–1900.
As one of the busiest and biggest slave-trading centers in the world in the mid-nineteenth century, Havana’s rich cultural life rivalled that of Paris, where Chopin’s Mazurkas and Ballades became models for eponymous works created by composers in Cuba, in particular Nicolás Ruiz Espadero and Louis Moreau Gottschalk (whose years in Paris brought him into direct contact with Chopin). European elements influenced and blended with the style of the Cuban contradanzas by Manuel Saumell and Tomás Ruiz, and the consummate craft evidenced in the Danzas Cubanas by Ignacio Cervantes begs comparison with one of the earliest masters of keyboard compositions, Johann Sebastian Bach. The program includes chorale preludes by Bach, Mazurkas and Ballades by Chopin, Gottschalk, and Ruiz Espadero, and contradanzas by Saumell, Cervantes, and Tomás Ruiz.
[Pictured above: a Cuban contradanza ball in the the mid 19th century.]
This theatrical event is part of our CreateNYC Language Access Series on Cuban History, Art, and Literature. It will be held in Spanish.
INSTITUTO CERVANTES
211 East 49th Street, bet. 2nd & 3rd Aves., NYC
FREE ADMISSION for CCCNY and IC Members
RSVP at: info@cubanculturalcenter.org
Dr. Donna Coleman’s research into American and twentieth century repertories, with focus on the music of Charles Ives and on the evolving Ragtime tradition, produced two world acclaimed recordings for Et’Cetera Records, two for ABC Classics (Sydney), and two for her own label, OutBach®, and earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina and the Southern Arts Federations, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Foundation, Radcliffe College, and Second Prize in the first John F Kennedy Center International American Music Competition, among many other awards. A Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship sponsored her first visit to Australia that led to her appointment as Head of Keyboard in the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne) and a twenty-five year, ongoing commitment to nurturing Australia’s finest talent. She has produced and performed in dozens of world concert tours and direct broadcasts for ABC Classic FM, and she created the OutBach® project that explores relationships between Indigenous, art, and popular music and presents performances in unexpected locations and combinations such as the world-first piano and didgeridoo duo collaborations and Bach’s keyboard concerti with orchestras of guitars. Jean-Marc Warszawksi, writing for Musicologie.org about Coleman’s recording of the thirty-seven Danzas Cubanas by Ignacio Cervantes, entitled Don’t Touch Me, said, “everything here is a rare musical success, thanks to the serene majesty of the interpretation, the tone colour, the presentation, and the interest and curiosity that these compositions arouse.” In 2011, Donna was a keynote concert presenter for Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center 50th Anniversary Conference. All of Donna’s CDs are available at amazon.com and iTunes.
This event is co-sponsored by Instituto Cervantes
And is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
With the promotional cooperation of
and
