Pomona College’s Department of Music welcomes internationally acclaimed pianist Boris Berman to campus for two performances with the Pomona College Orchestra – 8 p.m. on Friday, November 17 and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 19 – and for an all-Brahms solo recital at 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 18. All concerts will be held in Bridges Hall of Music, (150 E. Fourth St., Claremont) and are free and open to the public.
A former student of Berman, Genevieve Feiwen Lee, Pomona College’s Everett S. Olive Professor of Music, is delighted to have her former professor returning to Pomona College saying, “We are fortunate that someone with an international reputation such as Boris Berman is coming to Pomona to play with our orchestra and to give a solo recital on the same weekend. His stunning control of the piano is displayed through spectacular virtuosity as well as nuanced and delicate playing. He is a remarkable musician of wide ranging expression, color, and power and will offer our students an opportunity to work with and hear a consummate musician.”
Praised for “making his performance a very special and unusual experience,” (Jerusalem Post, Israel), Berman has become one of the most sought-after keyboard performers around the globe, evidenced by his regular performances in more than 50 countries on six continents. His highly acclaimed appearances have included concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, The Philharmonia (London), the Toronto Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and with the Tokyo and Vermeer quartets, to name a few. A frequent performer on major recital series, he has also appeared in many important festivals, and this year he will perform and teach in Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Holland, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Russia and the USA.
Born in Moscow, he studied at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the distinguished pianist Lev Oborin. In 1973, he left a flourishing career in the Soviet Union to emigrate to Israel where he quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after keyboard performers. Presently, he resides in New Haven, and is on the faculty at Yale School of Music.
A Grammy nominee, Berman has recorded all solo piano works of Prokofiev and Schnittke, the complete sonatas of Scriabin, plus works by Mozart, Weber, Schumann, Brahms, Franck, Shostakovich, Debussy, Stravinsky, Berio, Cage and Joplin.
The New York Times writes of an earlier performance of Brahms’ Opus 118, one of the works on his solo recital at Pomona College, “The pieces were exemplary: clean, carefully planned and then sensitively played, as if the pianist were in the midst of a meticulously structured reverie. Mr. Berman’s playing was technically adept and charged with energy and intelligence.”
When Berman joins the Pomona College Orchestra led by prize-winning conductor Eric Lindholm, he will play with one of the largest and most prestigious performing organizations on campus. The majority of its members are Pomona College students; however, the ensemble also has representatives from Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna and Pitzer colleges, as well as the Claremont Graduate University, other local colleges, and the greater Claremont community. Recent performances have featured such works as Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto, Brahms’ Violin Concerto, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and the Verdi Requiem, plus major works by Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Bartók, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and others.
Berman’s solo recital appearance at Pomona College is the first of two in Southern California. He will repeat his all-Brahms program on November 20 at Biola University in La Mirada, CA where ticket prices range from $7 to $17.
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Pomona College Orchestra
8 p.m. Friday, November 17, 2017
3 p.m. Sunday, November 19, 2017
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 with Mr. Berman
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
Berman Solo Recital
8 p.m. Sunday, November 18, 2017
Brahms Late Piano Works: Opus numbers, 116, 117, 118 and 119