By Signe Hammer
Pro Musica is excited to introduce the dazzling young pianist Dominic Cheli who will play at St. Paul’s Church on Friday, March 3 and Sunday, March 5 at 5pm.
The winner of the first prize from New York’s Concert Artists Guild, Symphony Magazine has described his playing as “spontaneous yet perfect.” Cheli made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2019 and has had a busy career ever since. He has performed with orchestras across the U.S. and Europe including the San Diego and Princeton Symphonies, Germany’s Nordwest Deutsche Philharmonie, festivals in Ravinia, New York City’s Mostly Mozart, and Aspen, Colorado. The L.A. Times described his Walt Disney Concert Hall debut as “mesmerizing,” while the Daily Telegram cites his “blazing agility.” A native of St. Louis, Cheli has degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, and the Colburn School. Committed to engaging with the community, he regularly performs at schools and retirement homes bringing programs and educational residencies. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and training for Ironman triathlons.
On Friday, March 3, at 5pm we will hear Brahms’ soul-searingly lovely “Intermezzo in A major,” one of his last works. Brahms dedicated it to Clara Schumann, for whom her own “Romanza in A minor,” lost until 1987, was found and published for the first time. Next, a Liszt piece, “Soirées de Vienne,” inspired by the music of Franz Schubert revised by Liszt for a favorite student, Sophie Menter. Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” is an imaginary tour of an actual memorial exhibition of paintings by the Russian artist Viktor Hartmann, a friend who had died suddenly. Also featured in the program will be “Suite No. 3 for the Left Hand” by Erwin Schulhoff who studied with Debussy and believed that music ought to “produce physical well-being, even ecstasy, through rhythm!” and H. Leslie Adams’s “Etude in A-flat minor,” from his “Twenty-Six Etudes.”
Sunday, March 5, features George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Originally written for piano with a jazz band, it fuses classical and popular musical traditions into an iconic American sound. Gershwin wrote 10 Broadway shows in eight years; “Porgy and Bess” remains a major American opera. We will hear two pieces by Debussy, “Masques,” and “L’isle Joyeuse,” written at a difficult moment, when the composer had just left his wife for another woman whom he later married. He called his “Masques” “an expression of the tragedy of existence,” while “L’isle Joyeuse,” (The Joyful Island), suggests a different mood. We will also hear two works by Rachmaninoff: “Prelude in B Minor” which follows in the footsteps of Bach’s “Well-Tempered Preludes and Fugue,” which follows in the footsteps of Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, and Gershwin. “Lilacs” or “Tryst” is based on a song from Rachmaninoff’s “Twelve Romances.”
Tickets for the concerts at St. Paul’s are 200, 400 and 600 pesos as donations per person and are on sale through our website as well as at the concert 45 minutes before performance time. Details of all Pro Musica’s concerts and Patron Membership are on our website www.promusicasma.org or contact us at promusicasma@aol.com.
Pro Musica Concert Series
“Dominic Cheli, Piano”
Fri., Mar. 3 and Sun., Mar. 5, 5pm
St. Paul’s Church
Calle Cardo 6
200, 400, or 600 pesos
