Johnson County Community College
Press Release
College Information and Publications
913-469-8500
Julie Haas, Director, ext. 3120
Peggy Graham, Writer, ext. 3425
Tyler Cundith, Sports Information Director, ext. 3122
11/03/05
Story by Peggy Graham
Brazilian and Beguiling – Pianist Cohen Returns to Carlsen Center
Pianist Arnaldo Cohen made his Carlsen Center debut as part of the Recital Series in January 2004. Because of the popularity of his superb virtuosity, Cohen makes a return engagement at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, in Polsky Theatre, Johnson County Community College, as part of the larger subscriber-based Celebrity Series, as well as the Recital Series. Cohen’s concert will be devoted to Brazilian piano pieces, Schumann’s Arabesque in C Major, Op. 18, and the Liszt B minor Sonata. Artist Insights begin at 7 p.m.
In the years since Cohen came to the attention of the critics and public, the Brazilian-born pianist has enjoyed an increasingly successful career which has taken him to the world’s major concert halls. His London Wigmore Hall recitals regularly attract outstanding reviews. He has performed extensively in Europe with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Suisse Romande Orchestra and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome. He has played with many leading conductors including Kurt Masur and Yehudi Menuhin, who said of Cohen, “Horowitz has a worthy successor.”
Born to Persian and Russian immigrants in Brazil, Cohen was the first-prize winner of the 1972 Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy and later became a prominent figure in the European music world when he replaced legendary Argentinean pianist Martha Argerich at a concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
But Cohen waited 24 years to make his U.S. debut with a triumphant performance during the 1996-97 season in a recital at the Frick Museum, N.Y. He returned to New York the next season to perform a critically acclaimed recital at the Tisch Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to his solo appearances, he has performed with the Amadeus Piano Trio and many string quartets, including the Lindsay Quartet, Chilingirian Quartet.
Now that Cohen has toured the United States, audiences and critics realize they’ve been missing out on a superb pianist with a mature mind and powerful, yet romantic technique.
His recordings, which include Three Centuries of Brazilian Music, the works of Franz Liszt and works by Schumann and Brahms, won him a cult following in Europe and the Americas. In 2005, Cohen is recording the two Liszt Piano Concertos and the Totentanz for BIS Records with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra.
Cohen is the recipient of a fellowship awarded by the Royal Northern College of Music, in Manchester, and held until recently, a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. After living in London for 23 years, Cohen and his wife have relocated to the United States, where he is a professor at Indiana University.
Tickets are $20, available by calling the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445, or online at www.jccc.edu/CarlsenCenter/.
