Kemal Gekic Premieres "Guernica" Piano Concerto in Prague
Fredrick Kaufman's
recently completed "Guernica" Piano Concerto was premiered
in Prague by the noted Croatian born concert pianist, Kemal Gekic with
the Czech National Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, February 19th, 2013 at the
historic Smetana Concert Hall.
This 22 minute, three movement concerto takes it's name and mood from
the 1937 Pablo Picasso anti war painting "Guernica" which
gained monumental status as a grim testament of the tragedies and
horrors of war.
Navona Records recorded The "Guernica" Piano Concerto with soloist, Kemal Gekic and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Maestro Marcello Rota. Also on the recording the much acclaimed "Kaddish", Cello Concerto as performed by soloist Mark Drobinsky with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as Seascape (see below). The recording was released July, 2013 and is distributed world wide by Naxos.
"Seascape" Recorded by the CSO
The Czech Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Richard Heim, recorded Fredrick Kaufman's Seascape in Prague
in February, 2013.
The work appears on a Novana Recording (NV5924) entitled Guernica Piano Concerto. It was released by Naxos in July 2013 to spectacular reviews (see the critics).
Kaufman's Film Music at Lincoln Center Tribute
Meditation for a Lonely Flute, a film directed by Donna Cameron with music conceived by Fredrick Kaufman
while in service with the Israeli Army during the Yom Kipur War, was selected by MoMA to be shown
at Lincoln Center on February 1st as part of a tribute to Shirley Clarke. Ms. Clark revolutionized the art of dance film.
"This chromatic vision of the desert transcends the bloodshed, the cold and the heat of the moment and meditates
on the magic of the surrounding desert's sounds and sands.... MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). Flute soloist: Adeline Tomasone
Documentary Film features Kaufman's Music
The 63 minute Czech documentary film Arnost Lustig...Nine Lives directed by Ivo Pavelek and released by Diamont Films, Prague,
features approximately 20 minutes of Fredrick Kaufman's music. The film was released in 2013 on European television and world wide in film
festivals beginning with the Miami Jewish Film Festival on January 30th, 2013.
Fredick Kaufman 's Music Now Available on I-Tunes, Amazon and Others.
Miami---Fredrick Kaufman's CD, The
Many Faces of Fredrick Kaufman is a compilation of chamber works. Each
work on the CD stresses Kaufman's eclectic and compositional nature from
traditional to avant-garde to multi-cultural to jazz oriented to soul
searching with ventures into his exploration of multi-culturalism and
his love affair with strings stretching the boundaries in works like
Wild Wind.
The reviews of Kaufman's recording, The Many Faces of
Fredrick Kaufman released January
2011 on iTunes have been spectacular. 'Fredrick Kaufman's music is of an
astonishing power. The pieces featured in his latest album reveal
Kaufman's all-embracing approach to composition and display mastery at a
variety of genres and compositional techniques.' The album includes
exquisite performances by world renowned artists such as flutist, Julius
Baker, pianist Susan Starr, oboist Sarah Lambert Bloom, cellist Andres
Diaz, and bass clarinetist Henri Bok, et al.
The Many Faces of Fredrick Kaufman
includes such works as String Quartet #6, The Urban,
nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by internationally renowned composer
Lukas Foss. New Yorker Magazine described The
Urban performance at the Bargemusic
Concert Series as 'Kaufman is back in town with one of his wildest and
most exciting quartets'' Berkshire Living stated "..the
concert climaxed with a surprising roar and ovation from the assembled
crowd for a somewhat dissonant, atonal, but gorgeously colored string
quartet, "The Urban" like
Gershwin before him, Kaufman is well versed in jazz and plenty of that
powered the piece, as well as some rock-like energy, in a painting and
colorful cacophony of sirens, car alarms, subway screeches, and blaring
lights, all organized in musical fashion that built towards its sizzling
viola cadenza climax.
ThunderGate Suite, from the
musical production Kaminarimon,
was described by The Miami Herald as ''amazingly
innovative imagination, has bridged a gap between polar extremes of
culture. Stunning.' Reviews from iTunes describes Inner
Sanctum as
'a piece that deserves to
be rated as one of the 20th-century's best solo cello pieces.
Fredrick Kaufman is the composer of over one hundred and thirty
published compositions that have been performed worldwide by major
orchestras. Fredrick Kaufman's Holocaust compositions such as his
award-winning Concerto for Cello and String Orchestra, Kaddish
which Bernard Holland of the New York Times described as
"having the most expressive writing for strings to be heard today," has
been performed in the major concert halls of Europe, Scandinavia,
Israel, South America, Asia and throughout the United States.
For a full bio of Fredrick Kaufman, visit
www.fredrickkaufman.com.
Critics from the New York Times; the Newark Star-Ledger, the
Philadelphia Inquirer, the Miami Herald, the Jerusalem Post, the London
Times, the Perpignan Independent, and other newspapers around the
world have described Kaufman's music as "striking individual" an
interesting combination of overwhelming pathos and infectious
joy "brought one into the realm of musical genius riveting work, will
stay with me forever."
For a complete bio and critical reviews visit
http://fredrickkaufman.com/theman.html to purchase his music
digitally go to
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-many-faces-fredrick-kaufman/id370507830
To order the CD The Many Faces of Fredrick Kaufman go to
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/FredrickKaufman.
Catalan Concertante
Hanani Joins The Ranks
of Great Cellists to play Kaddish
The brilliant Israeli Cellist Yehuda Hanani will perform Maestro Kaufman's much
heralded Concerto for Cello & Strings, "Kaddish" at the FIU Music Festival Grand
Opening on Thursday, November 2nd at 8PM in the Wertheim Performing Arts
Center on the FIU Campus.
Hanani's last performance of the work at Lincoln Center in 1986 brought
Kaufman some of his greatest reviews and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. "Kaddish"
was the runner up behind the winner of the Pulitzer that year, George Perle.
Since then, the work had been performed over 70 times in Russia, Israel, France,
England, Germany, The Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic & throughout the United States by some of the worlds greatest cello players.
"Both the Maestro & Hanani are delighted at the reunion and are looking forward
to many more such performances in the near future."
String Quartet #6, "The Urban"
Kaufman newest String Quartet, "The Urban," takes audiences and critics by
storm. Maetsro Kaufman's newest String Quartet, his 6th, written in the
Summer of 2005 received its premiere performance at the FIU Music Festival in
Miami, Florida in November.. It has since been performed at the Cincinnati
Music Festival, the Barge Concert Series in New York City, the Chameleon Series
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as well as the New Music Festival in Miami, Florida.
"Kaufman was back in town with one of his wildest and most exciting quartets
as exquisitely played by the Amernet String Quartet..."
- New Yorker Magazine
Plans call for additional performances and broadcasts of "The Urban" this year
throughout the United States and Europe by the Amernet String Quartet.
Kaufman has been so overwhelmed with audience response to the work and the
number of curtain calls received, that he has written a short encore piece to
accompany the work.
Fredrick Kaufman's "Urban Quart" proved to be a real
showstopper...one of Kaufman's best pieces. Frantic, ultra virtuosic string
writing captures the sights and sounds of a metropolis' urban pulse. Copland-
style lyricism leads to a sizzling viola cadenza and jazzy finale inflicted with a
hint of blue grass...reveled in the scores high-tech acrobatics and razzle-dazzle
pageantry.
- The Miami Herald
Kaufman's "The Urban" represents the composer at his best...relished the jazzy
cross rhythms of this New York inspired single movement work. The Quartet
reaches a stunning peroration as it builds on an ostinato figure towards its final
climax.
- Fort Lauderale Sun Sentinel
