College of Arts and Letters, NAU

Here is this months round up of book recommendations!

Getting ready for the first FPF 2024 young artist concert in Kitt Recital Hall! There is still one more chance to catch these young musicians- Saturday (tomorrow) at 11 AM in Kitt! Free and open to the public!

Yesterday's Masterclass with Inna Faliks was inspirational. We learned a lot about gathering tools for understanding and interpreting music in order to share it more fully with others. Faliks pointed out that music isn’t just practicing your instrument, but gaining musical vocabulary through experiences in life - traveling, visiting museums, reading, writing, meeting all kinds of people, and listening to all types of music! You can see that Faliks practices what she preaches when you dig into her her memoir, which she read from throughout her Wednesday night concert. It is titled, “Weight in the Fingertips,” and her companion album, “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” includes her the "Master and Margarita" suites that we heard at the concert as well.

Join us for the last masterclass in Kitt Recital Hall today at 10 AM with Michelle Cann!

Upcoming Events in the Arts and Letters - https://mailchi.mp/nau/caldec7-6735322

Flagstaff Piano Festival presents the 2024 Competition Awards & Young Artist Concert I, featuring FPF Competition winners & Academy participants in a varied and inspiring piano soirée program. Different program & performers from Young Artist Concert II. Free admission. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACADEMY, OR TO REGISTER GO TO: FLAGSTAFFPIANOFESTIVAL.COM

Spencer Myer welcomed three amazing academy students to the stage for masterclass yesterday morning and helped each one perfect the details that separate a great performance from a phenomenal performance.

During the Q and A we learned a few handy tips for getting the most out of your piano practice sessions. Myer recommends mixing up your practice with slow practice, or playing a portion of your song, then removing your hands from the keyboard as you visualize the score continuing to scroll past in your head, and picking up on the piece again at randomly selected measures later in the score.

Myer also recommends lots of listening to various recordings of the pieces that you play, and of the general piano repertoire. As far as practice time Myer recommended 2-6 hours a day, but not 6 hours all in one go!

When asked for his favorite piece, Myer immediately and enthusiastically responded with Debussy's, "Clair de Lune."

Flagstaff Piano Festival presents the 2024 Competition Awards & Young Artist Concert II, featuring FPF Competition winners & Academy participants in a varied and inspiring piano soirée program. Different program & performers from Young Artist Concert I. Free admission. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACADEMY, OR TO REGISTER GO TO: FLAGSTAFFPIANOFESTIVAL.COM

Last night’s FPF concert with Inna Faliks was a mesmerizing combo of words and music that left the audience in a storytime trance. Until they jumped to their feet to demand an encore! Catch her masterclass today at 10 AM in person or online!

Flagstaff Piano Festival presents acclaimed pianist MICHELLE CANN in a solo recital.

Lauded as “exquisite” by The Philadelphia Inquirer and “a pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, Michelle Cann has become one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation. She made her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2021 and has recently performed concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, and Cincinnati. Michelle Cann serves as the Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and on the piano faculty at the Manhattan School of Music.

Tickets are $30 for general admission and $25 for seniors: https://nautickets.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?id=2162

During her residency at Flagstaff Piano Festival, Michelle Cann will also teach a public piano masterclass on Friday, June 28, 2024 at 10:00AM-12:00PM in Kitt Recital Hall. Admission to the masterclass is free.

Last night Spencer Myer took the stage in Kitt Recital Hall. A full house hung on every note as he shared Debussy’s 24 Preludes, The impressionistic concert charmed the audience and they were delighted to meet Myer and to purchase his latest CD afterwards. Hope to see you tonight for the next FPF Featured Artist, Inna Faliks!

You can learn a lot at a Masterclass!
Today several students from the academy worked with Jeffrey Swann,a nd while he worked with the on their pieces we got to learn a bit of the backstory for each one. Did you know that Beethoven grew quite weary of Moonlight Sonata? Everyone wanted to hear the first movement again and again, it was like Billboard Top Ten in 1802, and he was known to complain that nobody wanted to hear anything else! It wasn't called Moonlight Sonata until after his death, he called it Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia, and it was dedicated to an aristocratic female student, Countess Julie Guicciardi, who he may have even thought of marrying, though she was 12 years his junior and would eventually marry another aristocrat. You can read more about the legends surrounding his ever popular Moonlight Sonata here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/arts/music/beethoven-moonlight-sonata.html
and in the novel: "Woman in the Moonlight" by Patricia Morrisroe

FPF Masterclasses are every day this week from 10 AM to Noon in Kitt Recital Hall! Free and open to the public!

Did you know you could catch the FPF masterclasses on a live stream every morning from 10 AM - Noon?
If you can't make it in person, turn on a bit of piano and musicology while you work!
Go here to see the live streams for all of the free events at NAU auditoria, including the FPF Masterclasses

https://www.youtube.com/-Virtual-Stage

Spencer Myer is about to come on stage for tonight’s FPF concert. Tonight we will have 24 Preludes from Debussy!

If you can’t make it in person you can purchase tickets to watch the featured concerts as a live stream instead at NAU.edu/cto

The Fabulous FPF Academy students have daily lessons with the amazing NAU piano faculty all week long. Then they practice their fingers off! You can witness the results of their hard work at the FPF Young Artist Concerts on Friday and Saturday!

Come on out to the FPF masterclasses every day this week at 10 AM! We promise you will leave with more musical knowledge than you came with. If not you win a free piano!

Totally kidding about winning one of our beautiful Steinways.

But come check out the Masterclasses!

Take only knowledge and leave only pianos!

Free (knowledge only) and open to the public.

Jeffrey Swann’s concert brought Chopin and Schumann to life for a full house on Monday night in Kitt Recital Hall. Please congratulate him on his farewell concert after a four-year term as the President’s Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at NAU.

The FPF Academy is stacked with amazing musicians! You can catch them making waves on the keys every day this week at 6 PM in room 144 of the Performing and Fine Arts building just beyond the Kitt Recital Hall, then again this Friday and Saturday at the FPF Young Artist Concerts!

Flagstaff Piano Festival presents the 2024 Piano Immersion Day. In keeping with Flagstaff Piano Festival’s mission to create equitable access and to engage the larger community, Piano Immersion Day (PID) events are free and open to all music and non-music teachers and students with an interest in learning more about music, the piano, and their pedagogy. Piano teachers whose students are attending the FPF Academy are invited to be an integral part of Flagstaff Piano Festival, by collaborating with FPF Faculty in identifying relevant piano pedagogy topics for a roundtable panel and a stage program, focused on engaging both music and non-music students and teachers.

PIANO IMMERSION DAY SCHEDULE

10:00 AM – Inna Faliks, Piano Masterclass (Kitt Recital Hall)

1:00PM – Teachers’ Roundtable Panel (PFA 144)

3:00PM – Teachers’ Stage Program (Kitt Recital Hall)

5:00PM – Teachers’ Happy Hour with FPF Faculty

7:00PM – Michelle Cann, Piano Recital (Kitt Recital Hall)

Flagstaff Piano Festival presents acclaimed pianist SPENCER MYER in a special recital featuring Debussy’s 24 Préludes.

Lauded for “superb playing” and “poised, alert musicianship” by the Boston Globe, and labeled “definitely a man to watch” by London’s The Independent, Spencer Myer is one of the most respected and sought-after artists on today’s concert stage, whose career was launched with three important prizes: First Prize in the 2004 UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa, the 2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association and the Gold Medal from the 2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition. Spencer Myer is a member of the piano faculty at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

Tickets are $30 general admission and $25 for seniors: https://nautickets.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?id=2160

During his residency at Flagstaff Piano Festival, Spencer Myer will also teach public masterclasses on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 10:00AM-12:00PM in Kitt Recital Hall. Admission to the masterclass is free.

Masterclasses have started at Flagstaff Piano Festival. Every day from 10 am to noon you can see 4 student performances, each one followed by a lesson with one of our featured pianists! These masterclasses are free and open to the public in Kitt Recital Hall!

Alexander Kobrin wowed the nearly sold out crowd at the Flagstaff Piano Festival Matinee Sunday afternoon with phenomenal Rachmaninoff, Schubert, and Beethoven with an encore that led to his third standing ovation of the evening. Don’t miss out! There are concerts every evening this week and masterclasses every morning! Flagstaffpianofestival.com Students and youth under 18 attend free!

The opening concert last night brought the 2024 Flagstaff Piano Festival to life with a full house and an impressive display of piano by the Kitt School of Music Piano Faculty! Check out flagstaffpianofestival.com to see all the week’s events and get in on the action!

Flagstaff Piano Festival presents pianist JEFFREY SWANN, “a virtuoso with a soul” (The Guardian) enjoying a long-standing international performing career on four continents, in a solo recital featuring works by R. Schumann and Chopin. (SCHUMANN – Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17, CHOPIN – Preludes, Op. 28).

In addition to presenting lecture-recitals worldwide, Swann has performed with the symphonies of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Indiana, Dallas, Saint Louis, Phoenix, Houston, Lexington, Baltimore, and Minneapolis; and in Europe with the orchestras of Rotterdam, The Hague, Belgian National and Radio, Santa Cecilia, La Scala, Maggio Fiorentino (Florence), RAI Turin and Rome, Südwest Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Prague Philharmonic, Radio France de Montpellier, and the London Philharmonia. He serves as Professor of Piano at New York University and the President’s Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Northern Arizona University.

Tickets are $30 general admission and $25 for seniors: https://nautickets.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?id=2159

During his residency at Flagstaff Piano Festival, Jeffrey Swann will also teach a public piano masterclass on Tuesday, June 25, 2024 at 10:00AM-12:00PM in Kitt Recital Hall. Admission to the masterclass is free.

Flagstaff Piano Festival presents pianist INNA FALIKS in a solo recital titled “Manuscripts Don’t Burn,” featuring works by Zhurbin, Shchedrin, Krausas, Johnson, Say, Chopin, and Beethoven (Manuscripts Don’t Burn: LJOVA ZHURBIN – Sirota for Piano and Historical Recording; RODION SHCHEDRIN – Basso Ostinato; VERONIKA KRAUSAS – Master and Margarita Suite; MAYA MIRO JOHNSON – Manuscripts Don’t Burn; FAZIL SAY – Black Earth; CHOPIN – Polonaise-Fantasie; Op. 61; BEETHOVEN – “Eroica” Variations & Fugue on an Original Theme, Op. 35).

“Adventurous and passionate” (The New Yorker) Ukrainian-born pianist INNA FALIKS has established herself as one of the most communicative and poetic artists of her generation. She receives wide acclaim through commanding performances of standard piano repertoire, as well genre-bending, interdisciplinary projects, and inquisitive work with contemporary composers. Inna Failks is Professor and Head of Piano at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.

Tickets are $30 general admission and $25 for seniors: https://nautickets.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?id=2161

During her residency at Flagstaff Piano Festival, Inna Faliks will also teach a public piano masterclass on Thursday, June 27, 2024 at 10:00AM-12:00PM in Kitt Recital Hall. Admission to the masterclass is free.

Flagstaff Piano Festival presents the 2024 Opening Ceremony and Faculty Recital featuring FPF & NAU piano faculty-artists Silvan Negruțiu, José Ramón Méndez, Tiantian Liang, and Aimee Fincher in solo and two-piano works. Free and Open to the Public. Come help us kick off this year’s festival with our very own world-class pianists!