21 Jun Maria Bachmann talks about Telluride Musicfest 2011
[click “Play” to hear Maria Bachmann speak with Susan about the Musicfest program]
There’s no judging this book by its cover. Although its cover is a thing of beauty. Tall and elegant, violinist Maria Bachmann has the look of cool patrician refinement but just beneath the surface, a red hot gypsy soul. In performance the combination intensifies the present moment. And those moments are upon us.
Maria Bachmann is the artistic director of Telluride Musicfest, an event that occurs annually in Telluride in June to celebrate chamber music in its intended form: first class musicians performing in an intimate home environment. (See related post for details.)
Musicfest co-producer Josh Aronson explains, “Chamber music was intended for performance in small chambers, salons and private theaters, where two to eight musicians played at parties given by noblemen.”
The odd nobleman and now Telluride locals and guests, who attend the four concerts (plus a bonus concert for subscribers and sponsors) – this year the theme is Vive La France – in the home of Aronson’s co-producers and friends, Anne and Vincent Mai.
Maria’s story is the American Dream. Hungarian parents forced to flee their homeland in 1956 after the failed revolution. Escaped to America, where her mother, Eva, a nurse, found work immediately, but her father, Tibor, a PhD professor of music, initially had to get by teaching piano. Grit and sacrifice ultimately paid off: Maria grew up to become a world-renowned violinist hailed by the Boston Globe “astonishing in every musical and technical regard.”
Maria and her group, the Trio Solisti (Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello and Jon Klibonoff, piano) are the heart and soul of Telluride Musicfest. Highlights in the lives of these musician over 2010 – 2011 to date include the release of Maria’s fifth recital CD, Glass Heart, with Jon on the Orange Mountain Music label. The CD includes the world premiere recording of Philip Glass’s Sonata for violin and piano (2008), written for Bachmann, plus music of Bach, Schubert and Ravel. The disc explores connections between the music of Glass and the other composers. Bachmann and Klibonoff were awarded the Classical Recording Foundation’s 2010 Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award for Glass Heart.
Trio Solisti made its Los Angeles debut at USC, and recorded a new cd of Dvorak piano trios to be released later this year.
The music performed this year at Telluride Musicfest highlights the profound influence the French school of composition had on American music, in particular Nadia Boulanger, the famed pedagogue, teacher, composer and conductor who taught many of America’s most important composers.
To learn more about Maria and Musicfest, click the play button and listen to Maria’s interview.
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