NASHVILLE |FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 27, 2013
DOUBLE TROUBLE:
JORDAN RUDESS AND JUDITH LYNN STILLMAN, DYNAMIC DUO,
AT THE NAZARIAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS IN PROVIDENCE, RI
ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013 8:00 PM
Two world-class pianists diverge and converge, and you can hear them both on Monday, December 9. Jordan Rudess (of the iconic progressive rock band, Dream Theater, and President of Wizdom Music) and Judith Lynn Stillman (who holds a Doctorate from Juilliard and was Wynton Marsalis’ classical pianist) will perform the Mozart Double Piano Concerto together at Roberts Hall in the Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts in Providence, RI.
The pair of pianists met, as children, on their first day of classes at Juilliard’s Pre-College Division, and became lifelong friends. Rudess, who perhaps took the road less traveled by, has since achieved international fame having sold millions of albums with his band Dream Theater, as well as having appeared on albums and tours with a wide range of artists including Steven Wilson, David Bowie, The Paul Winter Consort, Enrique Iglesias, and Liquid Tension Experiment. Rudess, along with his band Dream Theater, recently achieved the number one position on the Billboard music DVD charts for their live concert album “Live At Luna Park.” Rudess also is President of Wizdom Music, the creators of the multi award winning music app MorphWiz. Stillman pursued studies at Juilliard from her Pre-College roots through Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees at Juilliard, winning 18 competitions, including the Juilliard Concerto Competition, and performing at Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Marlboro and Tanglewood Music Festivals, and in festivals throughout the world, culminating in recordings and performances with Richard Stoltzman, Wynton Marsalis (their SONY recording, “On the Twentieth Century” was on the Top Ten of the Billbaord Charts), Mark O’Connor, the Borromeo, Shanghai, and Cassatt Quartets, and guest artist stints in music conservatories in Russia and China. She composed “Phoenix from the Ashes,” which received national media attention for its premiere with NY Metropolitan Opera soprano, Lori Phillips, and Stillman at the keyboard, and will be featured at the Czech Embassy’s cultural commemoration this spring.
Billed as “The Wizard of the Keyboard” and “The Poetess of the Piano,” the dynamic duo who have traveled two roads, join for Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the RI College Symphony under the baton of Russian conductor, Alexey Shabalin, with a unique highlight: Rudess has composed a cadenza (where the soloists strut their stuff!) that will receive its world premiere at this concert. The cadenza contains various stylistic references in a journey from the Mozartian, evolving into Latin, a Romantic lyricism, and a rousing, rockin’, ragtime feel toward the end.
Mozart wrote the work to be performed with his sister, Nannerl, and Stillman and Rudess are enjoying the conversational elements of the score–and its dialogue, repartee, question/answer feel, a gamut of emotional expression in pianistic interplay. The pianists play interwoven textures, together at times, and alternating between one another in other moments.
“Jordan’s genius and astounding creativity were obvious from the moment I first heard him grace the keys with his inimitable touch at the age of 9!” remarks Stillman of her colleague. “I think we always had a sense that not even the sky would be the limit for him. And his technique can rival any pianist’s, even Horowitz.” Rudess adds, “Stillman shines above the rest with her outstanding musicality and incredible drive for perfection. When I hear Judy at the piano, what strikes me is the combination of her poetic lyricism along with the immense power she can deliver!”
The pianists’ mothers also met and became friends at Juilliard, while waiting for their respective children during the long and arduous days of classes. Knowing how proud their moms would have been about the upcoming duo concert, the piano pair has dedicated their performance to the memory of their late mothers, Rita Rudess and Annette Stillman.
In the works, Rudess and Stillman have begun compiling a compendium of piano techniques, to be in book and video demo format, from their sometimes diverging, and oftentimes converging, “rock” and “classical” perspectives.
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For tickets, call the Nazarian Center Box Office at: (401) 456-8144
