“Superb performances, staggering interpretations;
thought-provoking and deep; beautifully characterized…”
Fanfare Magazine
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow provided posterity with many gems and among them is this poignant statement: “Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend.” As we approach the season of Thanksgiving, be uplifted and inspired by the artistic hands of ARCA favorite and friend, Internationally acclaimed pianist, GAYLE MARTIN, on Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 2:00 PM in Lincoln Hall.
ARCA is grateful for the very generous gift of ARCA Board member and Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Bott and Robert Jennings sponsoring the concert of Gayle Martin in Lincoln Hall.
From Moscow to Buenos Aires and New York to Los Angeles – in concertos and recital – internationally acclaimed pianist Gayle Martin’s “deep seated emotional response to the music” (Washington Post) creates “A truly magical atmosphere”. Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts by popular demand welcomes Gayle Martin back to the Lincoln Hall Steinway to perform a program of solo piano masterworks by Grieg, Beethoven and Chopin.
The sole American laureate of the Sixth International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow — the third American woman ever to reach the finals, Gayle has recently released her CD “To Keep the Dark Away,” (Ravello Records, 2016) which was hailed unanimously by three reviewers at Fanfare Magazine: “Superb performances, staggering interpretations; thought-provoking and deep; beautifully characterized… An infinitely rewarding disc that demands repeated listening.” A rave review by Daniel Kepl, written in August 2018 for Performing Arts Review, proclaims it “… a unique CD. Shatin the colorist, has a collaborative partner in Martin, whose clarity of technique, articulations and nuanced narrative helps transform words to sound. Spectacular!”
Post-COVID, open theatre style seating has returned to 100% capacity. There is no mask or vaccine requirement. Please refrain from attending if you are ill – or if you have been exposed to someone with COVID.
Tickets: Adults $25, ARCA Members $20, Students $5 To reserve tickets, please call 724 659-3153, buy online here or pay by cash or check at the door.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gayle Martin, Pianist
Steinway Artist Gayle Martin enjoys a distinguished career as a concert pianist, having achieved international prominence as the sole American laureate of the Sixth International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow — the third American woman ever to reach the finals. In reviewing her solo recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, The New York Concert Review wrote that she created “a truly magical atmosphere… and made this listener smile with pleasure.”
Her latest CD, To Keep the Dark Away, (Ravello Records, 2016) was hailed unanimously by three reviewers at Fanfare Magazine: “Superb performances, staggering interpretations; thought-provoking and deep; beautifully characterized…An infinitely rewarding disc that demands repeated listening.” A rave review by Daniel Kepl, written in August 2018 for Performing Arts Review, proclaims it “… a unique CD. Shatin the colorist, has a collaborative partner in Martin, whose clarity of technique, articulations and nuanced narrative helps transform words to sound. Spectacular!”
Following a recent performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, the critic Courtenay Cauble wrote: “Gayle Martin has it all. The depth of feeling is always there…because she makes the music her own and then communicates it, as any real artist must… Her performance was both brilliant and moving, and always beautiful.”
Highlights of Martin’s career include performances with the California Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Houston Symphony (since age 12), Moscow Radio Philharmonic, Moravian Philharmonic, the Maracaibo Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Denver Symphony, and the Virginia Symphony. She has toured throughout South America, including an engagement at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with theOrquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Argentina.
Other engagements include appearances at the White House and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and numerous performances throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Austria, Poland, Israel, the Czech Republic, and Mainland China, where she was a guest of the government. In Texas, she recently performed the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor with the Brazosport Symphony at The Clarion, the world-class Performance Center at Brazosport College. In May, she will perform an all- Beethoven concert including the Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 57 (“Appassionata”) and the Choral Fantasy, Op. 80 in Wilmington, Delaware at the Westminster Presbyterian Church.
A native Texan, Gayle Martin was one of the last students of the famous pedagogue Mme. Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School and was awarded the Josef Lhevinne Prize at graduation. She then studied with Dieter Weber at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. Martin holds the Master’s degree from NYU where she studied with Eugene List and taught on the faculty for five years. Her early training was with Ruth Burr, a local legend in Houston.
Gayle Martin is a frequent competition judge, both locally and internationally. She teaches privately in Houston, New York, Delaware and Connecticut, and is currently Co-Program Chair of the century-old Houston Tuesday Musical Club. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, she helped to keep the club running by holding meetings and performances over Zoom and presenting speakers from all over the world.
Gayle Martin performed “Fantasy on St. Cecilia” in the April 6, 2019 concert of music by composer Judith Shatin in Old Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia – part of Shatin Music Month, a celebration of the composer’s retirement from teaching and shift to full-time composing with performances of her solo, choral, chamber, electroacoustic, digital and orchestral music. Martin’s consummate and artistically tremendous, tour-de-force performance received a prolonged standing ovation and rave review by Ralph Graves:
Judith Shatin retrospective concert – insights and thrills
Apr 8th, 2019 | By Ralph Graves
For me, the highlight of the concert was “Fantasy on St. Cecilia” (1997). Based on her piano concerto “The Passion of St. Cecilia,” the fantasy distills the essence of that music into a version for solo piano.
Gayle Martin, who commissioned the work, performed. And what a performance! It was 16 minutes of raw emotion barely contained by 88 keys. We heard tone clusters formed by arms slamming on keys, frantic bursts of intricate, atonal runs, and stop-on-a-dime mood and tempo changes.
Martin owned this work. I could see her singing along with this complex music. It was thrilling. Those of us fully appreciated what we just experienced gave her a standing ovation.”
Gayle Martin’s recently released CD “To Keep the Dark Away,” (Ravello Records, 2016) was hailed unanimously by three reviewers at Fanfare Magazine: “Superb performances, staggering interpretations; thought-provoking and deep; beautifully characterized…An infinitely rewarding disc that demands repeated listening.” A rave review by Daniel Kepl, written in August 2018 for Performing Arts Review, proclaims it “… a unique CD. Shatin the colorist, has a collaborative partner in Martin, whose clarity of technique, articulations and nuanced narrative helps transform words to sound. Spectacular!”
Gayle Martin, Pianist – To Keep the Dark Away
Performing Arts Review – CD Review by Daniel Kepl
Elegant interpretations of imaginative musical narratives by Liszt Prokofiev and Judith Shatin “…welcome the ecstatic experience.” Emily Dickinson
Wow! A signature part of Gayle Martin’s portfolio, Fantasy on St. Cecilia shouts the artist’s virtuosity and justifies composer Shatin’s trust. Spectacular!
Also on the CD, a dazzlingly stylish and flawlessly descriptive performance by Martin of five movements from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Ten Pieces for Piano, Op. 75 and two gorgeously executed Wagner/Liszt transcriptions, Ballade of the Flying Dutchman and the exquisite Isoldes Liebestod.
Kudos to pianist Gayle Martin for a unique CD of cutting edge virtuoso contemporary piano works by composer Judith Shatin, paired beautifully with piano transcriptions of late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century masters Wagner, Liszt and Prokofiev.