AMERICAN/PERUVIAN COMPOSER GABRIELA FRANK, PIANIST SONIA RUBINSKY TAKE HOME LATIN GRAMMY® AWARDS
Both Artists Featured on Innovative Music Programs’ Soon to Be Released
“Voice Of The People” 21st Century Media Suite
NEW YORK, NY—December 8, 2009 — Innovative Music Programs (IMP) is proud to announce that two artists featured on its soon to be released CD entitled, Voice of the People, have been honored with Latin Grammy Awards: prolific American/Peruvian composer Gabriela Frank won for Inca Dances (Manuel Barrueco & Cuarteto Latinoamericano) [Tonar] and Brazilian/American pianist Sonia Rubinsky for Villa-lobos Complete Piano Music Albums #10 and #11: Suite Infantil Nos 1 & 2 (Nikolaos Samaltanos, Producer) [Naxos].
“We’re very fortunate to have worked with and recorded these two great artists on our upcoming CD, ” says IMP founder and internationally acclaimed violinist Shem Guibbory, also featured on Voice of the People. “It comes as no surprise that the Latin Recording Academy would pay tribute to their talents. We hope that their being so honored will enhance the already magical appeal of Voice of the People which we will release in April of next year.”
Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Ms. Frank is considered by many to be somewhat of an artistic musical anthropologist: her pieces reflect and refract her study of Latin-American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own. Her compositions include challenging idiomatic parts for solo instrumentalists, vocalists, chamber ensembles and orchestras, as well as reflect her virtuosity as a pianist. Recent premieres include New Andean Songs for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella new music series and Inca Dances for guitarist Manuel Barrueco and the Cuarteto Latinoamericano.
Ms. Rubinsky exemplifies the great tradition of virtuoso pianists: a profound and serious musical commitment combined with an exciting and refined technical gift. An internationally acclaimed soloist with celebrated orchestras, as well as a highly praised recitalist, performs extensively in the prestigious concert halls in North and South America and in Europe. Her repertoire encompasses all the great periods of music, from the Baroque to contemporary.
“Voice of the People,” which includes the music of Dimitri Shostakovich –Sonata For Violin And Piano, Op.137 (1968) — and two compositions by Ms. Frank, also features pianists Elizaveta Kopelman, and Craig Ketter, and dramatic coloratura soprano Susanna Eyton-Jones.
Frank, Rubinsky Win Latin Grammys
About the Artists
Gabriela Lena Frank, Composer – For Gabriela Lena Frank, identity has always been at the center of her music. Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Ms. Frank ardently explores her multicultural heritage through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, she is considered by many to be somewhat of a musical anthropologist and her pieces reflect and refract her study of Latin-American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own. Her compositions include challenging idiomatic parts for solo instrumentalists, vocalists, chamber ensembles and orchestras, as well as reflect her virtuosity as a pianist. Recent premieres include New Andean Songs for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella new music series, Inca Dance for guitarist Manuel Barrueco and the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Peregrinos for the Indianapolis Symphony and works for guitarist Sharon Isbin, the Chiara Quartet, the Concertante sextet, American Portraits? for the Modesto Symphony, Two Mountain Songs for a consortium comprising of the Young People’s Chorus of New York, the San Francisco Girl’s Choir and the Glen Ellyn Children’s Choir.
Ms. Frank’s other works include: Quijotadas (2007) by the Brentano String Quartet; Jalapeño Blues (2006) for Chanticleer, based on the Spanglish poetry of renowned Chicano poet Trinidad Sánchez; Compadrazgo (2007), a double concerto for David Finckel and Wu Han with the ProMusica Orchestra; La Llorona: Tone Poem for Viola and Orchestra (2007) for the Houston Symphony with principal Wayne Brooks under the baton of Hans Graf; Dos Canciones de Cifar (2007) for baritone and piano commissioned by the Marilyn Horne Foundation with Carnegie Hall; Ritmos Anchinos (2006) for the Silk Road Project; Cinco Danzas de Chambi (2006) for viola and piano commissioned by the Aspen Summer Music Festival; Canto de Harawi (2006) for the Da Camera Society of Houston; Manchay Tiempo (2005) for the Seattle Symphony under the baton of Jun Märkl; Inkarrí (2005) for the Kronos Quartet; Illapa: Tone Poem for Flute and Orchestra (2004) for flautist Leone Buyse and the Shepherd Symphony Orchestra and Three Latin-American Dances (2004) for the Utah Symphony Orchestra.
Three Latin-American Dances was subsequently recorded by the Utah Symphony for the Reference Recording Label and has been hailed as “dazzling” and exhibiting “wit, brilliance, atmosphere, and poetry (Classics Today), and “a rare treasure of modern orchestral music” (Hong Kong/China Hi Fi Review). Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout (2001), for which The American Record Guide called her “a remarkable composer.”
Sonia Rubinsky, pianist – Sonia Rubinsky exemplifies the great tradition of virtuoso pianists: a profound and serious musical commitment combined with an exciting and refined technical gift. An internationally acclaimed soloist with celebrated orchestras, as well as a highly praised recitalist, performs extensively in the prestigious concert halls in North and South America and in Europe. Her repertoire encompasses all the great periods of music, from the Baroque to contemporary.
Born in Campinas, Brazil, Ms. Rubinsky relocated to Israel, where she studied piano at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance with Benjamin Oren. She also participated in master classes with Edward Aldwell, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Irma Wolpe and Arthur Rubinstein, who complimented her on her temperament, as seen in the film, Arthur Rubinstein in Jerusalem.
She holds Doctorate and Master of Musical Arts degrees from The Juilliard School of Music and has studied piano with Beveridge Webster, Vlado Perlemuter, William Daghlian and Jacob Lateiner. She is the recipient of the prestigious William Petschek Award, the Carlos Gomes Prize as Pianist of the Year 2006, the Best Recitalist of the Year Award by the São Paulo Association of Music Critics and the 1984 first-prize winner of the Artists International Competition in New York.
Her recordings include the complete works of Villa-Lobos for piano for Naxos (8CDs), which earned rave notices. Vol. I, selected as “one of the best five recordings of 1999″ by Bryce Morrison of Gramophone Magazine, was nominated for a Grammy® Award in 1999 and Volume V was an Editor’s Choice in the October 2006 issue of Gramophone Magazine. She has recorded for Nonesuch/Elektra (John Adams), Daghlian label (Debussy, Villa-Lobos, Messiaen), Albany Records (Jorge Liderman), Algol (D. Scarlatti), and Clássicos (Mozart).