CD Concert Launch: Pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico Performs Visions: Rhapsodies & Fantasias Jan 22 2013 in Toronto


From a media release:

Launching World Premiere Centrediscs CD Set - January 22 2013 at the Gould
PIANIST CHRISTINA PETROWSKA QUILICO PERFORMS
CONSTANTINE CARAVASSILIS' VISIONS: RHAPSODIES & FANTASIAS

PIANIST'S PAINTINGS INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC
PROJECTED AT THE CONCERT

TORONTO -
Piano virtuoso Christina Petrowska Quilico performs a concert launching the world premiere of a two-CD Centrediscs recording, Visions: Rhapsodies & Fantasias, Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 7:30 p.m. at the Glenn Gould Studio, 250 Front Street W., Toronto.

The concert features the evocative, exhilarating and profoundly individual music of Constantine Caravassilis.

Tickets, $20, $15 students and seniors, are available from the Roy Thomson Hall box office, www.roythomson.com, phone 416-872-4255.

The two-CD recording is the result of the awarding of the inaugural Harry Freedman Recording Award jointly to Petrowska Quilico and Caravassilis in 2010.  It is also made possible by a recording grant from the Ontario Arts Council.

The January 22 concert promises to be an extraordinary evening of music and art. It features works from Constantine Caravassilis' complete books of Rhapsodies and  Fantasias for solo piano - most receiving their world premieres. As Petrowska Quilico describes them, "They are visions in sound, transcending lyricism to become a dramatic opera for the keyboard."

The concert is presented by Summers International.

VISUAL INTERPRETATIONS
Petrowska Quilico - who brings a rare combination of virtuosity, adventurousness and dedication to contemporary music - has created some 100 paintings, all inspired by the music.  They will be screened before and after the concert and during intermission, and some are being printed in the CD program book. The Canadian Music Centre in Toronto will subsequently display them in an exhibition. Petrowska Quilico is also the author and artist of Opera Illustrated, a critically acclaimed book of drawings, published in 1994.

It is no surprise that the composer's virtuosic piano works should inspire these paintings.  In Caravassilis's synaesthetic* musical "vision", musical sounds are linked to color and movement. 

His music is also intimately connected to his Hellenic roots, drawing inspiration from ancient Greek mythology and Byzantine music, while also reflecting his strong affinity for classical music that ranges from the baroque to impressionism. 

Caravassilis praises Christina Petrowska Quilico for not only her vast experience in premiering and recording new music, but also for her command of the standard repertoire, as well as her formidable technique. He adds, "Discovering the odd wrong note in the scores and choosing to keep it for its 'spicier' sound has been one of the many moments of joy in working together with this singular artist."

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