Yuliya Gorenman, a musician-in-residence at AU, performed the piano compositions of Franz Schubert at the Kazten Arts Center in Abramson Family Recital Hall on Oct. 27.
The show was part of an ongoing series of concerts called “The Gorenman Piano Project.”
These recitals have explored the keyboard compositions of different composers, including Chopin, Liszt and Schumann.
In Schubert’s lifetime, he composed over a thousand works. Gorenman said it was “extremely hard despite his very short life span” to narrow down the selection considering Schumann’s reputation as a master of melodies.
“I decided to select the ones which best represented his style: ‘Impromptu,’ ‘Fantasy,’ ‘Sonata’ and ‘a Song,’” Gorenman said in an interview with The Eagle.
The program included “Four Impromptus op. 90,” “Wanderer Fantasy,” “Sonata in C minor” and two songs of Schubert’s arranged by Franz Liszt: “Auf dem Wasser zu singen” and “Ständchen.”
Gorenman started playing at the age of seven and eventually gained entrance to the Special School for Musically Gifted Children in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
“I had lessons six times a week,” Gorenman said. “At first I practiced for two hours every day and then my hours increased greatly.”
She then later trained at the renowned St. Petersburg Conservatory, where legendary composers like Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev had studied, before she immigrated to the United States.
“Being a musician-in-residence allows me to teach as well as perform,” Gorenman said, who joined AU in 1997. “Being around students and faculty greatly enriches my life.”
Gorenman started “The Gorenman Piano Project” in 2011, performing piano works by Bach and Mozart. It was a great undertaking, but for her, the hard work was worth it, she said.
“For a typical solo recital you have to keep in your memory nearly two hours worth of music, thousands of notes and myriad details,” Gorenman said. “And when you have that incredible feeling that the audience is with you it’s worth absolutely everything. All those impossibly long hours of staying up and practicing when everybody is asleep and when your body is aching from fatigue. All worth it.”
DKAHEN-KASHI@theeagleonline.com
