Search - Tanya Gabrielian (piano) :: Remix// Bach Transcriptions - Music for violin and cello transcribed for piano: Cello Suite No. 2, Violin Sonata No. 3; Andante (from Violin Sonata No. 3); Chaconne (from Violin Partita No. 2)

ABOUT THE RECORDING - I started playing the piano at the age of three, but it took almost fifteen years for me to understand the power music can have. When I was a child, I never felt the calling to be a musician. And after high school, when I attended the Royal Academy of Music, I felt as out of place and unwelcome as ever. I found solace through martial arts and trained intensively in Zhuan Shu Kuan, a northern Chinese style of kung fu. One evening while sparring, I slipped on a puddle of sweat. As I fell forwards, the pianist in me pulled back my arms to protect my hands. I landed on my head, twisted my spine, and spent the next month shuffling between nine hospitals and two operating rooms. A teenager maneuvering through a foreign medical system, I was entirely alone and wholly uncomfortable during my hospitalization, with nothing to distract me from the painful reality of my situation. Except that I did have a stack of CDs with me, among them Bach s unaccompanied works for violin and cello. Until this point, I had been so immersed in the practice of music that I had never taken a step back to appreciate the experience of music. Now I had the time to listen all I had was time and listening elevated me above the hospital rooms, the waiting, and my own dull discomfort. Without Bach, I wouldn t have made it through that month. When it came time to pick the program for this album, the choice was obvious. Bach had lifted me from one of my lowest moments and made me into what years of practice had not: a musician. So I have chosen here my favorite pieces from those unaccompanied works for strings that I listened to during the time of my hospitalization. These new and rarely performed piano transcriptions have brought Bach s music into the 21st century. And I hope you can find in them something to lift you above the daily discomforts of the world. Surely they come from somewhere even more beautiful. [Tanya Gabrielian] ABOUT THE ARTIST - Tanya Gabrielian has captivated audiences worldwide with her gripping performances. She has performed on four continents in acclaimed venues including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Sydney Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Salle Cortot with such orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Armenian Philharmonic. Tanya shot onto the international stage at the age of twenty with back-to-back victories in the Scottish International Piano Competition and Aram Khachaturian International Piano Competition. Since then, performance engagements have included Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, Edinburgh International Festival, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and a return recital engagement at Wigmore Hall in London. Tanya's Southbank debut recital in the Purcell Room in London, presented by the Philharmonia Orchestra, was chosen as Performance of the Year by Seen and Heard International. She has also been featured on the cover of Clavier magazine. In addition to the traditional concert stage, Tanya is passionate about inspiring new generations of musicians and music lovers in diverse settings, dedicated to community engagement, education, and activism through art. Tanya s interests have always been diverse. Admitted to Harvard University to study biomedical engineering at the age of sixteen, Tanya instead pursued a career in music, completing her Bachelor s and Master s degrees at the Royal Academy of Music in London, originally studying both piano and viola. She received the prize for the best final recital for all six years of study and received a DipRAM, the highest performance award given by the Royal Academy of Music. Tanya finished her studies at The Juilliard School in New York.