Enjoy an afternoon of fine music and cuisine at the Oracle Piano Society Gala featuring an exclusive performance by internationally acclaimed pianist Alexander Korsantia. A cocktail reception and four course meal provided by Oracle Patio Cafe will follow the performance.

THE CONCERT:

L. V. Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
Six Variations in F major, Op 34

F. Schubert (1797 — 1828)

Sonata in B flat Major, D. 960

1. Molto moderato

2. Andante sostenuto

3. Allegro vivace con delicatezza

4. Allegro ma non troppo

Intermission

J. Haydn

Sonata in E flat major Hob XVI/49

1. Allegro

2. Adagio e cantabile

3. Finale. Tempo di Menuet

M. Ravel

La valse

Arrangement – A. Korsantia

THE DINNER:

Crab Tower:
A tower of layered crab, avocado, bleu cheese and tomato topped with daikon radish sprouts and truffle vinaigrette.

Grilled Artichoke Salad:
A salad of grilled artichokes and lemons with a lemon garlic aioli and long toasts.

Black Pepper Seared Duck Breast:
A seared pepper crusted duck breast with a crispy risotto cake, wispy carrot tempura and a tart cherry sauce.

Honey Pears:
Cinnamon & vanilla poached pears baked in puff pastry and drizzled with local honey.

Vegetarian Option:

Tower:
A tower of layered avocado, bleu cheese and tomato topped with daikon radish sprouts and truffle vinaigrette.

Grilled Artichoke Salad:
A salad of grilled artichokes and lemons with a lemon garlic aioli and long toasts.

Roasted Acorn Squash Stuffed With Mushrooms:
A roasted acorn squash stuffed with a mushroom blend and a crispy risotto cake, wispy carrot tempura and a brown sage butter sauce.

Honey Pears:
Cinnamon & vanilla poached pears baked in puff pastry and drizzled with local honey.

Vegetarian meals must be ordered at time of ticket purchase.

Tickets:

Concert, Reception & Dinner $150 ($40 tax-deductible contribution)

Concert & Reception $50

Student Rates for Concert & Reception $20

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dubbed “a major artist” by the Miami Herald and a “quiet maverick” by the Daily Telegraph, pianist Alexander Korsantia has been praised for the “clarity of his technique, richly varied tone and dynamic phrasing” (Baltimore Sun), and a “piano technique where difficulties simply do not exist” (Calgary Sun). The Boston Globe found his interpretation of Pictures of an Exhibition to be “a performance that could annihilate all others one has heard.” And the Birmingham Post gushed that “his intensely responsive reading was shot through with a vein of constant fantasy, whether musing or mercurial.” Ever since winning the First Prize and Gold Medal of the Artur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition and the First Prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition, Korsantia’s career has taken him to many of the world’s major concert halls, collaborating with renowned conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, Gianandrea Noseda and Paavo Järvi and orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, Kirov Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic.

During the 2011-12 season, Korsantia could be seen and heard in his debuts with the Edmonton Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Duluth Superior Symphony and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico, while also returning to the Pacific Symphony and Mannheim Symphony. He also gave again a recital at the Festival Piano Jacobins in Toulouse. In 2013 he will perform Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Recent engagements havee included Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Gergiev and the Mariinski Orchestra in Eliat, Israel, followed by a tour across that country with the Camerata Israel performing the 1st Concerto by Shostakovich, a work later repeated at the Batumi Festival in Georgia under Maxim Vengerov. Korsantia also performed with the Israel Symphony, Mannheim Symphony, and Goteborg Symphony.

Earlier, Korsantia made his debut with the Cincinnati Symphony and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, and performed with the Omaha, Elgin and Pacific Symphonies. These concerts followed a stint with the Israel Philharmonic under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos the previous summer, where he performed Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5, "Emperor" and the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 nine times. In Europe he was heard on tour with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in France and Germany, as well as with the Noeburg Chamber Orchestra across Germany. He also gave recitals at the Festival Piano Jacobins in Toulouse as well as in Calgary, Lodz, and his hometown, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Other noteworthy engagements have included a televised performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg; performances at the Stresa Festival in Italy under the baton of Yuri Bashmet; concerts at the Newport, Tanglewood, Vancouver, and Gilmore festivals; with the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Omaha, Oregon, and Louisville; and with the RAI Orchestra in Turin, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestra of and the City of Birmingham, the Georgian State Orchestra, the Kirov Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and others. He has also participated in a United States recital tour with renowned violinist Vadim Repin.

A veritable superstar in his country of birth, Korsantia performed at the inauguration of Georgian President Saakashvili in 2004, a year after National Television released a full-length documentary about him. In 1999, he was awarded one of the most prestigious national awards, the Medal of Honor, bestowed on him by then-President Eduard Shevardnadze.

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Alexander Korsantia began his musical studies at an early age. Among his mentors are his mother, Sventlana Korsantia and Tengiz Amiredjibi, Georgia’s foremost piano instructor. In 1992, he moved his family to the United States and joined the famed piano studio of fellow Georgian, Alexander Toradze, at Indiana University. Korsantia resides in Boston where he is a Professor of Piano on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.