Pianist Simon Ghraichy Performs Tonight at Carnegie Hall

Simon Ghraichy, the 29-year-old, prize-winning, Paris-based, Lebanese-Mexican pianist, makes his Carnegie Hall debut tonight, October 15 at 8PM. "Liszt and the Americas," will feature Simon Ghraichy at the piano performing a program of Liszt compositions "Sonata in B Minor," "Funeral March dedicated to the souvenir of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico," as well as works by Godowski, Gottschalk, Lecuona, Ponce and Villa-Lobos.

Liszt never visited the Americas. (He was afraid of the boat crossing.) Nonetheless, Liszt had strong links with the New World. Often organizing picnics and festivities to honor the Fourth of July for his more than thirty American pupils in Weimar, he was known to improvise variations on "Yankee Doodle." Many of his European students immigrated to the USA and founded piano schools in the Lisztian virtuosic tradition, among them Otto Singer, Arthur Friedman and Alexander Siloti, who later was Rachmaninov's mentor.

Liszt also personally knew Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the Louisiana-born American composer and pianist who had lived for many years in the Caribbean and Latin America and died in Rio de Janeiro playing his own composition entitled "Morte". Gottschalk not only played Liszt's works but also dedicated his own Mazeppa to Liszt. In 1867, Franz Liszt composed and dedicated a funeral march to the memory of Maximilian, the Emperor of Mexico. Liszt was so intrigued by the New World that he quoted in a letter to Baron Georg Von Seydlitz: "If cataclysms [...] were to devastate Europe from end to end, I would try to find refuge in the West Indies".

Says Simon Ghraichy, "Carnegie Hall has always been a dream for me, an aspiration. To me, as a European musician, Carnegie Hall reflects an America where all cultures and musical genres are welcome. I feel very honored to be having my New York City recital debut at that institution, especially since the 2015-2016 season is its 125th anniversary, and also the 50th anniversary of Vladimir Horowitz's -- my favorite pianist -- great return to the musical scene after 10 years of absence... in a concert at Carnegie Hall."

Ghraichy's Carnegie Hall debut is the first stop in a "Liszt and the Americas" tour that will play engagements at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on March 16, 2016, and Mexico, Berlin and Paris in fall 2016.

Ghraichy's new CD, "DUELS," is about to be released by Dutch record label, Challenge, and features Ghraichy performances of Schumann's "Kreisleriana op.16," Liszt's Sonata in B Minor, and Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's 7th Symphony (Allegretto).