Gabriela Martinez Plays Rachmaninoff

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Masterworks

Gabriela Martinez Plays Rachmaninoff

Feb 18

Sunday

3 PM

Century II Concert Hall

featuring Gabriela Martinez, piano

Hello? Is anyone listening out there? Imagine a musical message – a Primal Message - sent 25,000 light-years away? What would our cosmic greeting sound like? Nokuthula Ngwenyama, inspired by the work of Carl Sagan and the interstellar greeting sent by the Arecibo Observatory in 1974, offers her possibility. As we say in Kansas, “Ad Astra per Aspera.”

Mathis der Maler (Mathis the Painter) depicts an artist who retreats, spiritually wounded, from the turbulent world of contemporary politics into the timeless world of art. Does that sound like a story for our times? In this 1934 music, Hindemith responds to the art of a famous Renaissance altarpiece to convey his emotions about beauty and a rapidly changing world.

Pianistic fireworks – check. Sublime melodies – check. Famous piano concerto – check. It’s all here for you to experience. Rachmaninoff hit it out of the park with the Second Piano Concerto. Venezuelan pianist Gabby Martinez, with her effortless technique, takes the Wichita Symphony’s Steinway through its paces in a performance you don’t want to miss!

NOKUTHULA NGWENYAMA Primal Message for Strings
PAUL HINDEMITH Mathis der Maler
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 2
featuring Gabriela Martinez, piano

About Gabriela Martinez, piano

Versatile, daring and insightful, young Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez is establishing a reputation on both the national and international stages for the lyricism of her playing, her compelling interpretations, and her elegant stage presence. First Prize winner of the Anton G. Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Dresden and a semifinalist at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where she also received the Jury Discretionary Award, Gabriela Martinez began her piano studies in Caracas with her mother, Alicia Gaggioni, and made her orchestral debut at age 7. She emigrated to the United States to attend The Juilliard School, where she earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as a full scholarship student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. You can learn more about Gabriela at gabrielamartinezpiano.com.

Arrive Early for Concert Talks

If you’d like to learn more about the music in our concert programs, Concert Talks are just what you need! Before every Masterworks Concert, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra will present pre-concert talks which help prepare you and deepen your understanding of the music to be performed in the program. Sometimes our guest soloists even join Maestro Hege for a discussion of their concerto collaboration! Free to all ticket holders, Concert Talks take place in the Concert Hall one hour prior to each Masterworks performance.