Edvard Grieg Society to feature concert with Geir Henning Braaten
Edvard Grieg Society and Per Brevig, Founder and President, celebrates the anniversaries of Joseph Haydn and Felix Mendelsohn with a concert featuring renowned pianist Geir Henning Braaten on piano. The concert is part of the Yamaha Piano Concert series.
Geir Henning Braaten will perform the “Holberg Suite” and Piano Sonata in E Minor by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, followed by Joseph Haydn’s Piano Sonata in E Major, Louis Moreau Gottschalk’sThree Piano Pieces and Wedding March and Fairies’ Dance from Mendelsohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Braaten has always been praised for his beautiful sound and profound musicality. His interest in contemporary music has inspired many composers to write specifically for him.
About the Edvard Grieg Society
In 1991, inspired by the approaching Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the birth of Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), Per Brevig founded the Edvard Grieg Society. The Grieg Sesquicentennial provided an excellent opportunity to celebrate the composer’s musical accomplishments, study his life and work and enjoy once again some of his well-known masterpieces and bring to wider public attention some lesser known gems. Further, the Society’s founders believed that an organization honoring Grieg would also be instrumental in presenting and promoting the work of other Scandinavian artists, and in helping to build stronger ties between artistic communities in the United States and Scandinavia today.
About Geir Henning Braaten
Braaten made his concert debut in Oslo in 1966 and is considered as one of Norway’s foremost pianists. In 1967 he won 1st prize in the Prinsesse Astrid-competition for young Norwegian pianists at Trondheim. He is also prizewinner in the Concours Debussy at St-Germain-en-Laye, France (1977), and First Medalist in the Concurso Maria Canals at Barcelona, Spain in 1972.
Braaten has given concerts throughout Norway as well as most other European countries. He has done several extensive tours in the Far East, with concerts in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. International engagements have also brought him to Brazil, Mexico, The Middle East, The Seychelles and Africa. He has performed many times in the United States both in recitals and as a soloist with orchestra and most recently in 2007 in concerts both in Houston and New York.
He has a long and extensive discography. Essential is his recording of Grieg’s complete music for solo piano on 12 CD’s for Victoria record company. The recordings received the award “Best Special Edition” by Reed Midem Organizations at Cannes, France in January 1995. His last CD, Xmas Greetings from the Piano, was received to critical acclaim.
During his long carreer, Braaten has collaborated with many well known conductors such as Moshe Atzmon, Per Brevig, Arvid and Mariss Jansons, Maurizio Kagel, Tadaaki Otaka, Arturo Tamayo, Walter Weller and Sir David Willcocks just to mention a few. He has also performed with orchestras such as Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London, Tokyo Symphony, Sarajevo Philharmonic, Spanish Radio and TV Orchestra and with other orchestras in Norway, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Japan, Turkey and the U.S.
The concert will take place on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. at the Yamaha Piano Salon, 689 5th Ave (3rd floor at 54th St.) in New York City. For information and tickets please call: 201-750-0525.
Source: Edvart Grieg Society.
