Joel Fan - World Keys

Joel Fan is a member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble and has appeared with the Ensemble at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as well as on the television shows Good Morning America and David Letterman. A native New Yorker (born in 1969), Fan studied at the Julliard School, Harvard University and the Peabody Conservatory. Acclaimed as "superb" (The Boston Globe), "extraordinary" (The Village Voice), and "a versatile and sensitive pianist" (The Washington Post), Joel Fan combines astounding virtuosity with a rare gift for lyricism. World Keys presents a series of brilliantly crafted piano works that traverse different world musics – from Turkish Aksak rhythms and Arabian Maqam to Peking Opera of China – and juxtaposes them with works in the Western piano canon. Just as the piano sound world of Prokofiev, Schumann and Liszt may evoke the instruments of the modern orchestra, the music from foreign lands calls forth instruments such as the Chinese pipa and Persian santour. This singular program is sure to stretch the ears.

1. Adnan Saygun: Sketch on Aksak Rhythm

2. Prokofiev: Sonata No. 3

3. Dia Succari: La Nuit du Destin

4. Halim El-Dabh: Sayera

5. Qigang Chen: Instants d’un opera de Pekin

6. Liszt: Concert Paraphrase of Verdi’s “Rigoletto”

7. William Bolcom: . . . la belle rouquine

8. Peter Sculthorpe: Nocturnal

9. Schumann: Sonata No. 2 in G Minor

10. Peteris Vasks: Kantate

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