Pianist Eric Zuber Releases Debut Album, The Young Chopin, On Azica Recordsn November 18
The album is comprised of three pieces written by Frédérick Chopin in his early years.
By: A.A. Cristi Oct. 04, 2022
On Friday, November 18, 2022, international award-winning pianist Eric Zuber, releases his debut album, The Young Chopin on Azica Records.
The album is comprised of three pieces written by Frédérick Chopin in his early years, including Variations on 'Là ci darem la mano from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Op.2; Andante spianato and Grande polonaise brillante, Op. 22; and his Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Op. 11, recorded with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra led by Wilbur Lin.
Zuber describes his debut album, "I thought that it would be interesting in this debut album to explore some of the repertoire that Chopin composed as a very young man. When he was flexing his pianistic muscles, so to speak, before he retreated to a life of mainly composition and teaching."
Written in 1827, Chopin's Variations on 'Là ci darem la mano' from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Op.2 features the melancholy mood associated with the Polish spirit after the "November Uprising," the failed attempt against Russian domination.
Chopin's Andante spianato & Grande polonaise brillante, Op. 22 was written between the years of 1830 and 1834. Chopin first wrote the work for piano and orchestra and later wrote an Andante spianato in G for piano solo, adding this to the beginning of the original work.
Lastly, Chopin wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Op. 11 in 1830 and it premiered to critical acclaim in Warsaw at the farewell concert before the composer left Poland.
During a period of just a few years, Dr. Zuber was a recipient of major prizes from twelve of the world's most prestigious international piano competitions including Arthur Rubinstein, Cleveland, Seoul, Sydney, Dublin, Hastings, Honens, and the virtual Piano-e-Competition, and was named a Laureate of the American Pianist Association Classical Fellowship Awards. He was also a Gold Medalist in both the Hilton Head and Bösendorfer International Piano Competitions. For these and many other remarkable achievements, he was given the Arthur Rubinstein Prize by The Juilliard School. Dr. Zuber is also a two-time recipient of the Gina Bachauer Prize at Juilliard -one of only a handful of pianists in the school's history to have won the award twice in two consecutive years.
Dr. Zuber has made solo appearances at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Severance Hall and for the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City. After making his orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, he has gone on to perform with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad including Cleveland, Israel, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Phoenix, Sydney, RTE National, and the Royal Philharmonic. His collaborations with internationally acclaimed artists include performances with Lewis Kaplan, Paul Huang, Amir Eldan, Charlie Neidich, Joseph Silverstein, Gerard Schwarz, Johannes Moser, and Amanda Roocroft.
In addition to a busy solo and collaborative career, Dr. Zuber is dedicated to helping the next generation of aspiring young artists. He was recently named Assistant Professor of Piano at the Michigan State University School of Music where he will begin teaching in the fall of 2022. Previously he has held faculty positions at the University of Kansas, Bucknell University, the University of Memphis, the Peabody Institute, and at the Bowdoin International Music Festival among others. During the summer months he has joined the faculty for the Walled City International Piano Festival and Competition in Northern Ireland, the Cleveland International Piano Preparatory Academy and Festival, and the Asia International Piano Festival held at Ehwa University in South Korea.
Eric Zuber holds degrees from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (B.M., A.D., D.M.A.), the Curtis Institute of Music (Diploma), and the Juilliard School (M.M). His major teachers have been Boris Slutsky, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, and Robert McDonald. Dr. Eric Zuber is a CME Artist.
The Young Chopin Track List
Chopin - Variations on 'Là ci darem la mano' from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Op.2
1. Introduzione. Largo - Poco più mosso [5:09]
2. Tema. Allegretto [1:34]
3. Var. I. Brillante [1:01]
4. Var. II. Veloce, ma accuratamente [1:02]
5. Var. III. Sempre sostenuto [1:42]
6. Var IV. Con bravura [1:08]
7. Var. V. Adagio [2:12]
8. Coda. Alla polacca [3:48]
Chopin - Andante spianato & Grande polonaise brillante, Op. 22
9. Andante spianato. Tranquillo - Semplice [5:45]
10. Grande polonaise brillante. Allegro molto [9:32]
Chopin - Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Op. 11
11. I. Allegro maestoso [21:58]
12. II. Romance (Larghetto) [11:14]
13. III. Rondo (Vivace) [9:58]
Total Time: 1:12:03
ACD-71355
Executive Producer: Janet Nine
Producer and Recording Engineer: Alan Bise
Recorded at Goshen College on February 14-15, 2022 (tracks 1-10) and Schrott Center for the Arts, Butler University, on January 14-15, 2022 (tracks 11-13)
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