The eighth annual festival designed to honor the piano teaching approach of Dorothy Taubman (1917-2013) will take place June 28-30 at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University.
Taubman discovered a technique based on the biomechanics of playing. Renowned pianist Leon Fleisher once sought her help and later wrote, {Dorothy Taubman is remarkably intuitive and really understands the biomechanics of piano playing. If you go to her with a specific complaint – a pain, a tightness, a tic – she can immediately tell you what you need to do to alleviate it. (Fleisher, My Nine Lives (2010),” the organizers write in a release.
One of the featured presenters will be pianist Olegna Fuschi (Friday, June 28 at 4:30pm), speaking about the Lhevinne Legacy. Fuschi had been a Juilliard student of the legendary pedagogue Rosina Lhevinne (teacher of Van Cliburn). She was the first woman to be selected for the roster of the Sol Hurok Artist Agency.
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READ: THE BRAIN MAKES BEAUTIFUL MUSIC (TAUBMAN PIANO FESTIVAL 2017)
READ: TAKE THREE WITH ERIC MINTEL TRIO
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There will also be informative workshops and hands-on demonstrations about the Taubman Approach to piano playing. These will be oriented for a wide range of attendees, including children, piano teachers, and also jazz pianists.
The festival includes lectures, workshops, master classes and piano recitals. Mika Sasaki will perform on Saturday at 8 p.m., and Tiffany Poon will perform on Sunday, June 30, at 5 p.m. Festival directors are Sondra Tammam and David Witten.
For details, registration and schedules, visit tinyurl.com/y3oav2q9.
Pianist MIKA SASAKI
Music of Scarlatti, Rachmaninoff, Justin Dello Joio
Saturday, June 29, 8 p.m.
Leshowitz Recital Hall
Cali School of Music
Montclair State University
Pianist TIFFANY POON
Music of Scarlatti, Haydn, Chopin, Schumann
Sunday, June 30, 5 p.m.
Leshowitz Recital Hall
Cali School of Music
Montclair State University
Pianist Mika Sasaki is a sought-after recitalist, chamber musician, and educator whose performances and teaching have taken her to the U.K., Italy, Japan, Switzerland, and throughout the U.S. Her performances have been broadcastlive on WQXR, WFMT, and on Radio Sweden, and she has appeared as concerto soloist with the Sinfonia of Cambridge (U.K.), New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and most recently, with the InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York, performing Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto in February 2019.
She is the pianist of Ensemble Mélange, a sextet ensemble that uniquely invites audience members to choose what they want to hear from a “menu” comprised of more than two dozen chamber music and vocal works of various styles, from Baroque, Classical, Romantic, original commissions, to Broadway staples.
Sasaki is a faculty member at The Juilliard School, where she teaches piano and keyboard skills courses in the Evening Division, and Piano Topics and keyboard skills for pianists in the College Division. mikasasaki.com
Born in Hong Kong, Tiffany Poon was accepted into the Juilliard School Pre-College Division on a full scholarship at the age of 8 and made her solo and concerto debut in the USA when she was ten years old.
Her debut album, “Natural Beauty,” released by KAWAI Edition in May 2014, features works by Bach, Haydn, Chopin, Liszt and Debussy. The 2018-19 season includes recitals as part of the Klavierfestival Ruhr, the Rheingau Musikfestival, concerts in Brazil and Mexico, and a debut recital at the Huayi Festival at Singapore’s Esplanade. She will participate in the Bohème 2020 program as part of this summer’s Dresden Music Festival and Moritzburg Festival. In the 19/20 season, she will debut at the Mozarteum.
In addition to performing and studying, she also devotes her time to making videos on YouTube, where she shares insights of her life as a musician with the goal to peel back the curtain on classical music. Her social media following of nearly 110,000 YouTube subscribers has led to unique opportunities, including having a drink named after her as part of Minnesota Public Radio’s 2018 Holiday Insta-Drinks Series for “Performance Today” with Fred Child.
In 2014, Tiffany was named National YoungArts Winner in the United States. Her awards include first prize and Best Performance of Concerto Award at the 8th Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in 2012. Most recently, she won the first prize at the Manhattan International Music Competition.
Tiffany Poon is a 2018 fellow of the Young Artists Foundation gGmbH in Germany.