|
|
 |
|
Long haired concert pianist has written DREAM PIANO, a manuscript infused with humor and heartbreak. It's a piano finding journey you won't regret taking! And while being entertained, you'll acquire the savvy to navigate an often confusing marketplace of new and used pianos!
|
|
|
Background
Information
|
|
A MUSICAL JOURNEY: Scarlatti, Schubert, and Chopin is at: www.cbaby.com/cd/shirleyk (audio samples, reviews)
You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukfXfaUcXMo
Kirsten's Cds are sold at cd baby, i tunes, tradebit, pay play, and other Internet sites. Her music has been extensively reviewed and distributed.
Concert pianist, recording artist, private piano teacher, and author has completed DREAM PIANO, her year long romp as a piano finder in the company of side kick, 81 year old, piano tuner,YORK who battles the big 3M enemies of pianos, Moths, Mice, and Moisture and provides colorfully rich, Oklahoman rural commentary. A great raconteur, he is a storehouse of humorous stories that intersperse the text, keeping it moving at a lively pace. Readers can count on York to give a glimpse into every variety of piano known to human kind.
Author, Shirley Kirsten's journey takes her to the nooks and crannies of Fresno, CA and on to cosmopolitan SF, and by cyber to Holland, in search of the golden, glowing instrument of her clients' dreams. The piano, naturally, becomes a stand-in for a desired mate in a wacky, impulse driven pursuit by eager buyers impressed by filigreed, antique exteriors of pianos and not their heart and soul tone.
Dream Piano is amusing, and sometimes heart-breaking. It is full of laughs and high drama and will appeal to a wide range of readers who will also derive an educational fringe benefit right into the last page.
An established concert pianist, recording artist, and private piano teacher, Shirley Kirsten has been around pianos since age 6. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, and the NYC HS of Performing Arts (FAME), she received her Master's Degree in Music Therapy at NYU. Her publications have appeared in the Piano Quarterly, Clavier Magazine and the California Music Teacher. Kirsten was also staff writer for Northview News where she covered the Arts, Education, and Business.
More from the author:
I grew up in the Bronx and lived in a veteran subsidized housing project until my family relocated to the other side of the bridge in the Inwood section of Manhattan. As a teenager I attended the glittery NYC High School of Performing Arts, a rat infested place that became the basis for the "FAME" I wanna live forever TV series. Yup! I trekked by subway through sleet and snow for 3 long years--getting off at the 42 St. Times Square station at 6 a.m. after the ladies of the night had cleared the area. It was at P.A. that I met Murray Perahia, world renowned pianist who was and still is my biggest musical influence. I played for him when I was 9 months pregnant, about to give birth to my son, David. From Performing Arts I journeyed on to the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio and completed my Bachelor's Degree in Performance-Piano. Finally I pursued graduate studies at the NYU School of Education receiving an M.A. in Music Therapy. My first publication, based upon my experiences as a St. Vincent's Internship, appeared in the American Psychiatric Assocation's Journal of Hospital and Community Psychiatry and explored music therapy techniques I employed in a milieu treatment environment.(Alcoholic and psychiatric patients) My interest in the music therapy profession was short-lived as I was always a performing pianist at heart. Eventually, I got an apartment on W. 74th and Amsterdam in the Big Apple, and put my Steinway, M 1917 vintage grand in my one and only room. During those years I worked as an Employment Interviewer for the NY State Department of Labor, taught piano and went to grad school. At some point I landed in this God forsaken no man's land, Fresno, and still suffer the pangs of culture shock. But through all these two plus decades, I've carved out a niche for myself here, performing on radio, teaching, making CDs, writing and publishing music related articles and essays. Now that I've finally completed my Dream Piano book, I look forward to getting it out to the public. One more thing, if you Google my name, you'll see that I have been a celebrated substitute teacher who spearheaded an against the odds organizing drive in Fresno that garnered national attention. I am the featured subject of an article titled "Substitutes Unite!" by David Hill that appeared simultaneously in Teacher Magazine and Education Week, October, 1999 and led to my national presidency of a Substitute Teachers Alliance. (NSTA) In this leadership capacity I delivered the first in history Keynote speech at a national sub conference held in Washington D.C. and I interviewed with the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, etc. This was a three year stint that was very rewarding and a high point in my life.
|
|
Birth Place
|
|
Bronx, NY
|
|
Accomplishments
|
|
Published in the Piano Quarterly, Clavier Magazine, the California Music Teacher; former staff writer for Northview News: covered the Arts, Education, and Business; 4 "Valley Voices" essays (Fresno Bee) 4 classical CDs released, most recent acquired a favorable review in the California Music Teacher. Listen to the author's music at www.cdbaby.com/cd/shirleyk and at www.fasttraxx.com/shirleykirsten
From the California Music Teacher, May 2007: "Kirsten has delved deeply into the complex music of Scarlatti and achieved a beautifully balanced and sonically colorful picture. Her playing is immaculate...The Scarlatti works are nicely balanced by Schubert and Chopin." Phyllis Villec, Editor, California Music Teacher
Numerous Fresno Bee Profiles in the Lively Arts Section; "Tune Town" review of "A Musical Journey" CD-
"Moonbeams and Other Musical Sketches," Kirsten's composed Intermediate piano album was positively reviewed in Clavier Magazine.
Script consultant to a TV Movie--Kirsten worked with Dan Freudenberger, screenwriter, ABC TV.
Written up in Teacher Magazine and Education Week for having spearheaded a successful organizing drive of Fresno, California substitute teachers: "Substitutes Unite!" by David Hill, October 1999.
First President of the National Substitute Teachers Alliance, NSTA-Keynote speech in DC covered by the NY Times and other newspapers.
|
|
Additional Information
|
|
Praiseworthy Internet Review of A Musical Journey: Scarlatti, Schubert and Chopin by C. Walter Bailey, blogcrtics.org
Disk can be purchased at www.cdbaby.com/cd/shirleyk
and www.cdbaby.com/cd/shirleyk2 (Latest CD release: Scarlatti and Chopin)
Music Review: Shirley Kirsten - A Musical Journey: Scarlatti, Schubert, & Chopin
Written by C. Michael Bailey
Published September 26, 2007
Not only have the Internet, mp3s, downloadable music, and new compression methods revolutionized the production, marketing, and distribution of newly-minted popular music and jazz, they have also done the same for classical music. A case in point is Left-Coast pianist, maestro, and self-described piano finder Shirley Kirsten. Kirsten has just released her third self-produced recital of piano pieces, A Musical Journey: Scarlatti, Schubert, & Chopin that follows the previously released Musical Enchantment and Inspiration. While the combination and proportion of the eras represented on this disc is curious, multiple listening go a long way in supporting Kirsten’s method and vision
Shirley Kirsten studied in New York City with Lillian Freundlich and in the Wild West with Ena Bronstein. One of her most significant influences has been pianist Murray Perahia with whom she attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (H.S. 485) located near the Juilliard School in the Lincoln Center district of Manhattan. This high school is also noted for having produced the likes of conductors Gerard Schwarz and David Zinman, pianists Joshua Rifkin and Steven Lubin and jazz musicians Bill Charlap, Eddie Danials, Marcus Miller, and Shorty Rogers. Kirsten also participated with Perahia in a pianist Master Class.
Kirsten is not only a concert performer and recording artist, but she has recently penned a tome entitled Dream Piano that documents an eventful series of piano finding adventures in the company of one character, York, a colorful, 81-year old "piana tuna." All that adds up to Kirsten being quite a character on paper which this writer can further validate through recent conversations with the pianist.
Having established that Kirsten is a cross between Agatha Christi and Muzio Clementi transplanted into the 20th Century, what of her precious Scarlatti? Kirsten is beautifully sola scriptura, carefully respectful of Scarlatti’s scores without perform them in a boring or rote manner. Kirsten has no fear taking on the Vladimir Horowitz Scarlatti book, devoting special attention to Sonatas in "G Major, K. 146"; "D Major, K. 96"; "f minor, K. 466"; "D Major, K. 491"; and "E Major, K. 380." Of sensual delight here is Kirsten’s feather touch on the f minor sonata and her inclusion of the E Major Sonata, with which Horowitz opened his 1986 Moscow concert captured on Horowitz in Moscow.
Kirsten acknowledges her peer, Murray Perahia’s Scarlatti output with the inclusion of the "sonata in b minor, K. 27", accentuating Perahia’s purist approach with a more fluid articulation and expression in a way flattering to both pianists. Kirsten perfectly captures the lullaby character of the "B Flat Major Sonata, K. 440". Overall, this is superb Scarlatti, played with grace and care.
Kirsten’s Scarlatti recital is provocative but is made further compelling by the inclusion of a Schubert impromptu and three Chopin Waltzes. It would be simple, at first listen, to dismiss the inclusion of these Romantics with roundly Baroque Scarlatti… simple-minded, that is.
Listening to this disc in one sitting brings into focus the history of pianism from mid-18th Century to mid-19th Century. Using the metaphor of confection, one could consider the Baroque musings of Scarlatti as simple, yet elegant bonbons coated with powdered sugar. Dip these bonbons in the early Romanticism of milk chocolate and one can imagine the transformation of Scarlatti’s notes into the sweetened and slightly dangerous vision of Schubert. Substituting the decadence and delicious bite of dark chocolate for Schubert’s milk chocolate and one arrives at the high romanticism of Chopin, his waltzes musical gospels teaching so much in so short a time.
Shirley Kirsten’s choice and performance of these pieces is both educational and highly enjoyable. This is not music one fills up on; it is music of which one cannot get enough. It is a pleasure to know that A Musical Journey: Scarlatti, Schubert, & Chopin is to be followed by another Scarlatti/Chopin collection.
A Musical Journey: Scarlatti, Schubert, & Chopin is available through CDBaby. Visit Shirley Kirsten on the Web.
Selections
Sonata in A Major, K. 113, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in G Major, K. 146, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in d minor, K. 1, D. Scarlatti; 4 Sonata in G Major, K 14, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in D Major K. 96, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in b minor, K.27, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in G Major, K. 391, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in C Major, K. 159, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in f minor, K.466, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in D major, K. 491, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in d minor, K. 77, D. Scarlatti; Pastorale in D Major, K. 415, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in E Major, K. 380, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in D Major, K. 492, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in d minor, K. 141, D. Scarlatti; Sonata in B Flat Major, K. 440, D. Scarlatti; Impromptu in E Flat Major, Op. 90, Schubert; Waltz in A Flat Major, Op. 69, Chopin; Waltz in b minor, Op. 69, Chopin; Waltz in D Flat Major, Op. 64, Chopin.
|
|
Favorite Links
|
|
CD Baby has Kirsten's Scarlatti, Schubert, Chopin
Sample the author's performances in the Baroque and Romantic genre. It's an entree to her book, Dream Piano. Latest review of Disk 3: "Kirsten has delved deeply into the complex music of Scarlatti and achieved a beautifully balanced and sonically colorful picture. Her playing is immaculate...The Scarlatti works are nicely balanced by Schubert and Chopin."
(California Music Teacher, May 2007, Convention issue)
A Player Piano without a Name
An imposing cabinet grand piano had no name on its fall board but was still cherished by its owner, "Alice," who reluctantly sold it. "She said to the young buyer, 'it's like you're taking part of my arm, but I'm willing to let it go.'"
A Dream Deferred Piano
Real piano finding adventures chock full of humor and heartbreak--True-to life characters and events--an assortment of pianos and their sometimes out of control, impulsive seekers (i.e. "Shattered Dreams," the story of "Rebecca McGregor" who selected a piano on the Internet and paid dearly for it--includes her courageous romp from Fresno to Atlanta with York as expert witness in small change court where they looked "southern justice in the eye!")
"A Dream Deferred Piano," A Steinway, 1920 vintage piano's journey from Fresno Bee ad, to preview, to bidding war and the drooling bidders who pursued it!
Shattered Dreams
Read Rebecca's compelling story. Battling stage 3 breast cancer, she dared to take on an international piano tradesman.
|
|
|
|
Bookmarks
Share
Save
[