February 15, 2007
Pianist Juana Zayas to perform Feb. 20
Pianist Juana Zayas will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20 at Meany Hall. Known for her lilting lyricism and impassioned power, the Cuban-born Zayas is known as one of the greatest living Chopin interpreters, and will be presenting several Chopin pieces as part of her program.
Taking to music early, Zayas began to pick out folk tunes on the keyboard by ear at the age of 2. By age 4, she was reading music and playing four-hand duets with her mother. At age 7, she entered the Peyrellade Conservatory of Music in Havana and gave her first solo recital, performing works by Beethoven, Handel, and Chopin. By age 11, she had earned a Gold Medal at the Peyrellade Conservatory, for her performance of the Schumann Concerto. During her childhood, performances by Jorge Bolet, Claudio Arrau, Friedrich Gulda, and Arthur Rubinstein (who played every year in Zayas’s native Havana) were among her earliest and most vivid musical experiences; their styles and musical personalities have been an inspiration to her ever since.
Zayas was able to leave Cuba with the help of her last teacher there, who was a friend of Joseph Benvenuti, Professor of Piano at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. Zayas auditioned for and was accepted to the Paris Conservatory. She returned briefly to Cuba during the following summer, then resumed her studies in Paris, never to return to her native land. At the Conservatoire, Zayas studied piano with Joseph Benvenuti and chamber music with René Le Roy and took First Prize in both. Following her graduation, she won a Medal with Distinction at the International Music Competition in Geneva, Switzerland.
Her concert appearances have taken her from Portland to New York and from Madrid and Milan to the Netherlands and Venezuela. Juana Zayas’ recordings of Liszt, Schumann, and Schubert can be found on the ZMI, Albany Records, Music and Arts Programs of America, and Zayas Masterworks labels.
The Meany program includes Mozart’s Sonata in A Major, K. 331; Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives; Liszt’s La Campanella; Two Legends: St. Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds and St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Waves; Chopin’s Grande, Valse Brillante, Op. 34, No. 1, Barcarolle, Op. 60, Berceuse, Op. 57, Ballade, Op. 23; and Balakirev: Islamey: Oriental Fantasy.
Tickets are $33 and may be purchased in person at the UW Arts Ticket Office, by phone at 206-543-4880, and online at www.uwworldseries.org.
Ticket holders are invited to come early to learn more about the artist and the program at a free, pre-show lecture. UW World Series pre-show lectures begin 45 minutes prior to curtain and take place in the Meany Hall west lobby.
