Upcoming and Recents Events
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Artis Wodehouse in recital November 13th, 2007 Keyboardist Artis Wodehouse continues her ongoing revival of the foot-pump harmonium in a recital on Tuesday evening, 8 p.m. November 13th, 2007 at the Yamaha Piano Salon, 689 Fifth Avenue, Third Floor, New York City playing two major collections of early 20th century French keyboard masterworks published in the same year, 1913. The concert features a rare performance of Louis Vierne's Pieces in Free Style Book I on Wodehouse's restored 1875 Trayser 2-manual harmonium. The contrasting major work is Debussy's Preludes Book II for Piano, which she will play on a modern Yamaha concert grand. Wodehouse will also play two new pieces for harmonium, Labyrinth and So will you say 'I do' specially written by Dina Pruzhansky for the concert. Admission is free. Wodehouse is best known for producing a popular series of piano roll CDs that blend modern computer technology and the Yamaha Disklavier with the playback system of antique player pianos. The New York Times has cited her as a "savior of the old and neglected." And Time Magazine called her internationally best selling 1993 recording Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls on the Nonesuch label, "A remarkable example of technology put to the service of art." Her life-like renditions brought back to the present roll performances of great American pianists from the 1920s: George Gershwin, Jelly Roll Morton and Zez Confrey. Recently Wodehouse discovered a small antique foot-pump organ abandoned in a church dumpster. Her rescue and subsequent restoration lead her to explore the substantial forgotten music written for it and to acquire a unique selection of several antique foot-pump instruments for her personal use that were built in the 19th century. Believing that her instruments should be brought into the present, Wodehouse makes a point of featuring new music written for them by living composers on all her programs. A recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Wodehouse holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano from the Manhattan School of Music, a Master of Music in Piano from Yale University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance Practice from Stanford University. Her website is artiswodehouse.com. While still in her early teens, Dina Pruzhansky, composer of Labyrinth and So will you say 'I do' for two of Wodehouse's antique instruments won a nationwide piano competition in her native Azerbaijan. She holds a Masters Degree in Piano Performance from the Tel-Aviv Buchmann-Mehta School of Music and is currently a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University. Her wide-ranging interests have also led her to earn a degree in Art History. Program:
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