Cuban American Pianist Santiago Rodriguez To Perform With Palm Beach Symphony In February

Cuban American Santiago Rodriguez will perform with Palm Beach Symphony led by Gerard Schwarz on Monday, February 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. 

Rodriguez replaces the previously announced guest artist, Vladimir Feltsman, in a concert that will feature him performing the exhilarating Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor. Part of the Symphony's 50th Anniversary Season, the concert also features the Symphony performing Rimsky-Korsakov's entrancing Scheherazade and a world premiere composition entitled Orchestral Excursions by South Florida resident Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, which is inspired by the artworks of Gil Maurer whom the work honors. This world premiere is commissioned for Palm Beach Symphony by Ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter.

Born in Cárdenas, Cuba, Rodriguez began his piano studies at age four and was sent to the United States by his family after Castro seized power. Living in an orphanage in New Orleans under the care of Catholic Charities for six years, he continued his musical education and made his concert debut at age 10 performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 with the New Orleans Philharmonic. 

Rodriguez' international career was launched in 1981 when he won the Silver Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and also received a special prize for the best performance of Leonard Bernstein's Touches, a work commissioned for the competition. Rodriguez' unique life and artistry were profiled on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kurault, and he has also been featured numerous times on the ABC, NBC, PBS, CNN, BBC, and CBC television networks.

Rodriguez has performed internationally with leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Weimar Philharmonic, the Yomiuri-Nippon Symphony

Orchestra of Japan, the Tampere Philharmonic of Finland, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, Seattle, Indianapolis and Houston Symphony Orchestras, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. and the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. 

National Public Radio's Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection recommended three of Rodriguez' recordings as “the best available” performances, and his recording of the Rachmaninov and Prokofiev Third Concertos has been internationally acclaimed as one of the best in recorded history. Rodriguez has recorded numerous world premieres, including Piano Concerto No. 1 by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco; the Concertino for piano, strings, and cymbals of Carlos Surinach; Leonard Bernstein's Touches; piano concertos from the movies Nightsong and Phantom of the Opera, both of which are featured on his release, Piano in Hollywood; and the Piano Sonata No. 2 of Alberto Ginastera, which he premiered at Alice Tully Hall in New York.

Additional Masterworks Series concerts in the 50th Anniversary Season are Pinchas Zukerman, violin (Jan. 15); Emanuel Ax, piano (March 6); and Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano (April 25). 

Tickets are $25-$95 and may be purchased at PalmBeachSymphony.org and by phone at (561) 281-0145. The Kravis Center is 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL  33401.

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