A MUSICAL WEEK TO REMEMBER AT SÃO LOURENÇO

Paul Crossley at the piano with Pedro Ferro, Rafael Azevedo and Olesya Kyba

Last week after months of planning the Amigos de Musica (the AMIGOS), generously sponsored by the Mundo Crastino Meliori (MCM) Foundation in conjunction with the Centro Cultural São Lourenço, finally embarked upon their ambitious piano Master Class series under the expert guidance of Maestro Paul Crossley, and no one could have foretold how worthwhile and spectacularly wonderful the adventure would turn out to be.

Seven aspiring young pianists had applied for the Master Classes which were given without charge. They were divided into two groups each lasting for three days and both would end with a public recital. The classes began on Monday morning and ran throughout the week and it was fascinating to hear the progress the students made as the Maestro gradually showed them how to polish and improve the pieces they had chosen to study. Paul Crossley has spent a distinguished career playing with most of the major orchestras of the world, recording more than fifty CDs, many of which have won major awards and carrying out Master Classes all over the world. Paul was honoured in the 1993 Queen’s Birthday Honours list when he received a CBE.  Paul’s background and many achievements can be found on www.connaughtartists.com/artist_profiles/paul_crossley.htm

Who better then to pass on some of his wealth of skill and expertise to a younger generation?

In the first half of last Wednesday’s concert we heard Olesya Kyba aged 25 from Lisbon followed by Raphael Azevado aged 15 from Barreiro, both playing works by Ravel. In the second, Pedro Ferro gave us Ballade Op. 52 by Chopin and Carnival by Schumann. Pedro who is thirty and already a well established pianist told us that he has admired the work Paul Crossley since childhood, particularly his benchmark recordings of the Debussy Preludes. He played with renewed confidence, sweeping his attentive audience along with him. It was a wonderful concert, so good in fact that we began to wonder if we would be able to equal it three days  later when the second group, as yet unheard, were due to play.

On Thursday morning work began in earnest. From Faro Conservatorium came Julia Azevedo, 14, and Alena Khmelinskaia, 18. From Evora came Claudia Silva, 23, a student of Pedro Burmester, and Antonio Cebola, 24, again from the University of Evora. Here was the challenge; would the Maestro be able to weave his magic on these young hopefuls to get them ready for a public concert by Saturday evening? The girls, although off to a shaky start had improved beyond recognition and would play Haydn, Schumann and Chopin in the first half. António Cebola, who had astonished us on the first day with his quiet modest charm and his well rehearsed chosen pieces, would fill the second.

The concert last Saturday night will remain in the memory of the capacity audience for a very long time, the second half especially when we were galvanised by a spectacular performance of two of the most difficult and challenging pieces of music ever written for solo piano. The Andante spianato et grande polonaise brilliante Op22 by Chopin and Gaspard de la Nuit by Ravel. To be equal to both of these stupendous works and to be able to pull them both off with such aplomb one after the other for the first time at a public concert shows a rare and prodigious ability. Moreover, whilst it easy to listen to the Chopin, the Ravel with its sparkling but sinister first movement, its mysterious and threatening second and its oh so dark and scary third, is not. The Cultural Centre audiences are always appreciative but on Saturday night Antonio Cebola held us completely under his spell. His ‘Gaspard’ was like a ride on a rollercoaster, swooping upwards and downwards, hanging on tight, dangerous but somehow irresistible.
It was a wonderful week when seven aspiring young musicians from Portugal were able to reap the benefit and take encouragement from an acknowledged Master of the piano. They will remember it and

add it to their CVs for many years to come. The two concerts will be remembered by both the audience and the performers. And finally, it would be nice to think that in years to come we shall see Pedro Ferro
and António Cebola established and performing on an international platform and that the AMIGOS, the MCM Foundation and the Centro Cultural São Lourenço  had provided a small but significant step along the way.

ABOUT THE AMIGOS AND THE CULTURAL CENTER

The Cultural Center and the AMIGOS welcomes everybody to their concerts but reservations are essential.  There are also some vacancies for new AMIGOS. See the AMIGOS website  HYPERLINK “http://www.amigos-de-musica.org” www.amigos-de-musica.org for more details about the AMIGOS and forthcoming concerts. Please call Cristina at the Centro Cultural São Lourenço for more information and to make bookings at 289395475 (between 10.00am and 7.00pm except Mondays) or send an e-mail to  HYPERLINK “mailto:ccsl@iol.pt” ccsl@iol.pt

PRESS RELEASE

CENTRO CULTURAL SÃO LOURENÇO (CULTURAL CENTER)
ASSOCIAÇÃO DE AMIGOS DE MÚSICA DE SÃO LOURENÇO (THE AMIGOS)
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BARRY SHAW, PRESIDENT, THE AMIGOS, RUA DE SÃ0 SEBASTIÃ0 4, 8100-070 BOLIQUEIME, PORTUGAL.
TEL/FAX: +351-289366617 CELL: +351-919739997 E-MAIL:  HYPERLINK “mailto:info@amigos-de-musica.org” info@amigos-de-musica.org WEB: www.amigos-de-musica.org

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Paul Crossley with Olesya Kyba, Marie Huber and Dorris Carp

Pedro Ferro with Paul Crossley

Paul Crossley and Pedro Ferro discussing Schumann

Paul Crossley with Rafael Azevedo, 15 years old, from Barreiro

the audience……listening intently

Paul Crossley with Olesya Kyba

Paul Crossley, Pedro Ferro and Marie Huber

Paul Crossley with Julia   Azevedo

Paul Crossley withAlena Khmelinskaia

Paul Crossley discussing Ravel with António Cebola

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OCTOBER 12th – 17th 2009

This new initiative by the Amigos de Música aims at supporting young Portuguese music students, a deep concern of the Association anchored in their statutes. Taking place in the Centro Cultural São Lourenço, the piano master classes will be open to the public each day during the week of October 12th  from 10:00 – 12:00 and 14:00 – 16:00.

The classes will be conducted by Paul Crossley who has appeared numerous times at Saõ Lourenço and is recognised as one of the major pianists of our time. He has premiered many new works by composers like Henze, Takemitsu, Berio, Adams and more. For more information please visit his website: Paul Crossley

Upon consultation, and in collaboration, with various music schools and conservatoria in Portugal, seven suitable advanced piano students have been selected to participate in these teaching sessions. They come from Lisbon, Evora and Faro. These seven participants will have the opportunity to work with Paul Crossley on pieces of their own choosing from the repertoire of 19th century piano music, with a suggested emphasis on works by the 2010 featured 200th anniversary composers, Chopin and Schumann. (Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann were both born in 1810).

At the conclusion of each three day series of classes, there will be public concert recitals by the participants. Two interesting concert programmes have been put together under the guidance of Paul Crossley. They will be presented to the public by the young artists  on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 and Saturday, October 17th, 2009. Both concerts will start at 19:30 in the auditorium of the Cultural Centre (for full programme details click “Forthcoming Concerts”)

The Master Classes are free of charge to the students. This is made possible by the generous support of the Foundation “Mundo Crastino Meliori (MCM) – for a better world tomorrow”, together with the very generous offer of collaboration by Paul Crossley.

Special thanks also go to the Conservatorio Maria Campina in Faro where pianos have been placed at the disposal of the participants for practice sessions.

And not least of all, thanks to the Centro Cultural de Sao Lourenco and the ever helpful team; without their generosity, professional assistance and unfailing kindness none of our undertakings would ever be possible.

The Amigos de Música de São Lourenço are particularly happy to have this additional opportunity to offer support and recognition to aspiring young Portuguese artists. It has been a focus of AAMSL’s endeavours for more than 15 years to not only give a purse to a Portuguese piano student during his or her further studies abroad, but also to offer the opportunity to perform in public. The present, and AAMSL’s fourth, sponsoree is a Lisbon graduate, who is continuing her studies at the Cologne Conservatory. With these Master Classes we have a means of reaching a relatively greater number of aspiring pianists, who will hopefully derive and take away some valuable experience. We certainly wish them all possible success.

For any information concerning these Master Classes please contact:
Helga Hampton, Coordinator
Piano Master Classes CCSL/AAMSL 2009

PARTICIPANTS in Master Classes

Olesya Kyba Escola Superior de Musica, Lisboa, 25 years old,
Recommended by her teacher Anna Kaasa

Rafael Azevedo, 16 years old
Recommended by his teacher Pedro Ferro

Pedro Ferro Teacher at Conservatoria of Tomar and Setubal and
performing pianist; gave CCSL/AAMSL concerts in March 2009

Julia Azevedo Conservatorium Maria Campina in Faro, 14 years old
Recommended by her teacher Oxana Anikeeva

Alena Khmelinskaia Conservatorium Maria Campina in Faro, 18 years old
Recommended by her teacher Oxana Anikeeva

Claudia Silva University of Evora,
Student of Pedro Burmester

Antonio Pedro Cebola University of Evora – Dept. of Music, 24 years old
Recommended by Prof. Eduardo Lopes

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