공연 소개

Witkowski Piano Duo - Fabio & Gisele Witkowski

Brazilian-American pianists Fabio and Gisele Witkowski have been sharing stages around the world as the Witkowski Piano Duo. Accomplished pianists and dedicated educators, the Witkowskis are admired for their vibrant and dynamic four-hands and two piano concerts. They have performed in several prestigious venues, such as the Gardens of Villa Rufolo in Ravello, Italy, at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C., at The Shanghai Symphony Hall and Shenzhen Concert Hall in China, at Villa Musica and Elbphilharmonie, in Germany, at the Sala Mozart in Zaragoza, Spain, and at Carnegie Hall, in New York, in addition to numerous recitals in the USA, Israel, South America, Asia, and Europe. The New York Concert Review has described their playing as “showing marvelous rubato and tremendously clean playing, with a lovely sense of tone”.

Recent performances included concerts at the Enescu Music Festival in Romania, the Ljubljana Music Festival in Slovenia, the Nuit Pianistique Aix-en-Provence in France, and the Mendelssohn Festival in Hamburg, Germany.

They have performed with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina, Santo André Symphony, São Bernardo Philharmonic Orchestra, Hartt Symphony Orchestra, Piracicaba Symphony Orchestra, Rio Claro Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hotchkiss Philharmonic, the Lamont Symphony Orchestra, The Denver Philharmonic, the Thüringer Symphony Orchestra, and the Paulista Symphony Orchestra. As chamber players their performances include appearances with the Emerson String Quartet, The Guarneri Quartet, the Fine Arts Quartet, The Amerigo Trio, the São Paulo String Quartet, and cellist Robert deMaine, among others. Mrs. Witkowski’s Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall solo recital debut was hailed as “the most genuinely fascinating recital debut in many a moon,” (New York Concert Review). Mr. Witkowski’s playing has been described as having “many passages of bravura, sensitivity, and pearly agility” (The Hartford Courant).

Concomitantly to their performing careers, they enjoy a busy academic life, both teaching at the Hotchkiss School, where Mr. Witkowski is the Head of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts and Director of the music program. Mr. Witkowski holds a cum laude BM and MM from the Hartt School of Music. Mrs. Witkowski received her Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Hartt School of Music. Mr. and Mrs. Witkowski have appeared as guest artists and professors in numerous music festivals, including the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, the Granada Piano Festival in Spain, the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and Hotchkiss Summer Portals in the USA, and the São João del Rey, Belém, Londrina, and Ourinhos Music Festivals in Brazil. They are currently directors of the Hotchkiss in Italy Music Program and the Hotchkiss Piano Summer Portals in the USA.

Mr. and Mrs. Witkowski frequently serve as judges and guest artists of several international piano competitions such as the Spanish Composers Competition in Madrid, the Cidade de Ferrol Competition in Galicia, the MozArte Competition in Aachen, Germany, and the Cesar Franck International Piano Competition in Belgium. Their students have received numerous prizes in national and international piano competitions.

One of the duo’s exciting projects included performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the Bowen McCauley dance company, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the masterpiece. According to the Washington Post, “Fabio and Gisele Witkowski played the four-hand piano arrangement as if they possessed the very paws of Fate.”

Their two-decade long collaboration with the esteemed Fine Arts Quartet has been memorialized by the critically acclaimed album of George Enescu’s early chamber works, produced by Grammy award winner Steven Epstein and released worldwide by Naxos Records in 2023.

Waltz in F-sharp Minor, op. 3 Ernst von Dohnányi

(1877-1960)

Rhapsody in Blue George Gershwin

      (1898-1937)

Suite No. 2 for two pianos, op. 17 Sergei Rachmaninov

I. Introduction       (1873-1943)

II. Valse

III. Romance

IV. Tarantella