Barbara Nissman Benefit Piano Recital March 21, 2009
Berkeley, California 94707
Romantic repertoire specialist Barbara Nissman (http://www.barbaranissman.com/ ) will give a benefit piano recital and masterclass at R. Kassman Piano Recital Hall in Berkeley. Proceeds will benefit the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation (www.concertedeffort.org). The benefit recital will be given Saturday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. with reception to follow. The masterclass, featuring some of the Bay Area's finest young pianists, will be given Sunday, March 22, at 2 p.m. and is free of charge.
Well known for her definitive recordings of the complete piano music (solo & chamber) of Alberto Ginastera, and the complete piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev, recently reissued on Pierian Records, Barbara Nissman's roots remain within the nineteenth century. Hailed by a New York critic as "one of the last pianists in the grand Romantic tradition of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Rubinstein" her connection to romantic pianism reaffirms her approach to the twentieth-century pianism of Prokofiev and Ginastera.
Barbara Nissman's international career was personally launched by Eugene Ormandy who had previously engaged her as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has performed with the leading orchestras of Europe and America including the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Munich Philharmonic; in the US she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the National Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra among others. She has worked with some of the major conductors of our time including Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Leonard Slatkin.
$25.
Official Website: http://www.concertedeffort.org
Added by FullCalendar on March 1, 2009
Comments
kiisaka
It is such a pity that such a wonderful programme was presented at one of the worst piano business in the nation.
I was in Berkeley today, and made a stop at Kassman innocently and unknowingly. It was quite a shock, I had never visited this place, but I am always keen to meet people in the business, and make contacts. I happened to drive by to notice the store, so I made a stop to say hello
I thought I had seen it all, not just those in the piano business, but those in the used car sales, herbal viagra, and illicit substances, but the guy here is in a class by himself
As I entered, I introduced myself and offered my hand for a handshake. The gentleman at the store glared at me, as if was expecting Glenn Gould or Vladmir Horowitz to drop by or something. He reluctantly gave me his name (Russel) after which I said that I am interested in looking at the pianos on the floor, as I am always looking for one to complement my 1980 Hamburg Steinway Model B, although I was not expecting to purchase one right away. Oh, yes, to put it in perspective, my current piano is worth more than all of my cars combined, and my cars are not junkers either.
Well, at that moment, I felt that he wanted me out of his store. When I asked if I could take a look at the pianos, he replied, "you can look at them but please don't touch them." As a pianist, I do not give a damn about how the piano looks, whether it's all beat up or painted pink, but I do care immensely about the quality of the sound, and the workmanship of the assembly. As most of the pianos on the floor were used pianos while others were low-quality Chinese POS (piano-shaped objects) under the name of long-defunct European names, it would be of utmost importance that I actually sit down and play.
When I asked to play two specific pianos, he said that another customer was due to arrive in 5 minutes, and I was not allowed to play. I asked again to play that I would be happy to leave when his customer arrives, but he declined. He just about yelled at me that an appointment is required
Now, I have visited hundreds of piano stores around the world, from the Steinway Hall in New York,and around the world to all the major dealers in the Bay Area: Sherman Clay, Colton, Music Exchange, and countless others. In addition, I have also visited dozens of piano rebuilder workshops. Without one single exception, I was always welcome to ask questions, try their pianos, and have a conversation with the staff. It came as a shocker to encounter the treatment by the owner of the business
In the current state of the economy, where businesses in luxury items such as musical instruments are desperate, I sincerely hope that this business along with the captain of the ship will sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. That would be a tremendous benefit to the not-so-stellar reputation of the piano retail business in general.
I should have checked reviews of this business online. It seems like others have had a similar experience: