Sep
22
Wed September 22nd, 2021
7:30PM
Main Space
Minimum Age: All Ages
Doors Open: 6:30PM
Show Time: 7:30PM
Event Ticket: $20
Day of Show: $30
Piano
PROGRAM
György Ligeti: Selections from Piano Études
Pierre Boulez: Second Piano Sonata
Pierre Boulez: Third Piano Sonata (version 2021: Antiphonie, Trope, Constellation-Miroir)
György Ligeti’s études and Pierre Boulez’s sonatas have long been Taka Kigawa’s specialty. He has performed those pieces many times worldwide, garnering unanimous praise from both critics and audiences alike. For his Ligeti performance, The New York Times wrote in the headline, “Taka Kigawa Masters the Conflicting Rhythms of Ligeti.” The Wall Street Journal hailed, “The pianist Taka Kigawa gave an electrifying traversal of all 18 Ligeti Études, a kaleidoscopic set of works that demands the unrelenting energy and precision that are Mr. Kigawa’s specialties.” For his Boulez performance, The New York Times has written: “Boulez’s Piano Solos in Taka Kigawa’s Hands.”; “Mr. Kigawa’s feat deserves the highest praise, especially since it was combined with such alacrity and sensitivity to the musical material”; and, “Mr. Kigawa recast the [Boulez] sonata as an essay in how to apply suppleness to virtuosity, and the result was an energetic but also characterful account.” La Nacíon, Argentina’s leading paper, wrote that “Kigawa, whose rhythmic sensibility is truly astonishing, proved to be a real master.” Pierre Boulez himself highly praised Kigawa’s performance of his works: “I was very much impressed by the brilliant way he performed them. He was precise, and at the same time inventive.”
Taka Kigawa
Celebrated by The New York Times as a “Phenomenon” and “the extraordinary pianist,” and praised by The New Yorker as “an artist of stature,” Taka Kigawa’s playing sparkles with both clarity and intensity. Buenos Aires’ La Nación called him “a stupendous virtuoso.”
Mr. Kigawa has performed across the United States, Europe, South America and Japan—at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Library of Congress, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Known for a repertoire that spans the Baroque to the avant-garde, he is equally at home in the classics and in adventurous, contemporary music.
Taka Kigawa has collaborated with legendary musicians, including Pierre Boulez, Myung-Whun Chung and Jonathan Nott, and premiered the final solo piano work of jazz icon Yusef Lateef.
Born in Nagano, Japan, Mr. Kigawa now calls New York City home. He is a Steinway Artist.