Recitals for Piano Series Begins Tomorrow

THE first concert of the 2005 Recitalsfor Piano series will take place at theNational Theater in San José tomorrow at 8p.m. The program will feature music byCosta Rican composer Mario Alfaguell.Born in 1948, Alfaguell studied pianoand composition at the University of CostaRica, and did graduate work in compositionat the Institute of Contemporary Musicin Freiburg, Germany, between 1976 and1980. He has participated in contemporarymusic festivals on three continents, and hastwice been awarded the prestigiousAquileo J. Echeverría prize.Part one of the concert will consist of atranscription for two pianos of Alfaguell’s“Concerto for Left Hand for Piano andOrchestra,” a work that premiered in 2003.Keren Neeman will play the piano solo,while Ludmila Melzer will perform thepiano transcription of the original orchestralscore.Born in Israel in 1977, Neeman came toCosta Rica with her family in 1990. Shestudied here until 1999, and then did graduatework and received her Master’s degreefrom the University of Tel Aviv in 2003.Melzer was born in the former SovietUnion, and received her musical educationthere. She has been living in Costa Ricasince 1997.The Concerto’s central theme is basedon a traditional Costa Rican song from theCentral Valley called Temporal Cerrao(heavy rainstorm).Variations on thismelody form the basis for the interchangebetween the piano and orchestra (and, inthis transcription, the two pianos).“Four Pieces for Piano” will form thesecond part of the program, with EduardoSolano as soloist. Born in San José in1985, Solano has studied here, in additionto having master classes in New York andTexas from 2000 to 2004. He has givenmore than 50 recitals. Besides contemporarypieces by Latin American composers,he frequently programs works by Bach,Chopin, Liszt and Schubert.Curtain time is tomorrow at 8 p.m.Tickets are priced at ¢2,000 for generaladmission, ¢1,500 for students and seniors.