We are very happy that Zahari Metchkov will be playing for Classically Alive, and hope you are free for this event. While we have some great talent performing here from around the world, in Zahari Metchkov we have a superb artist right in our own backyard.
The first half of the program is comprised of French composers, Messiaen and Debussy. Our program opens with three pieces from Olivier Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant-Jesus”, a deeply spiritual, meditative work written in 1944. The entire work, all twenty pieces, are over two hours long.
Messiaen is regarded as one the most important composers of the twentieth century, and is a fascinating figure. A very eclectic composer, his influences include Japanese music, Indonesian gamelan music, plus inspirations from Bryce Canyon, Utah!, St. Francis Assisi, and so on.
Messiaen was also an ornithologist, and many of his compositions, some quite lengthy, center around birds. Messiaen was an organist and devout Catholic, and his deep spirituality speaks in the “Vingt Regards”.
Also, on the first half are two works by the French Impressionist composer, Claude Debussy. His very famous “Clair de Lune” is a much beloved work that needs no introduction. The first half closes with the brilliant, colorful, virtuosic prelude, “Feux d’artifice/Fireworks”.
The second half opens with a short work, Richard Wagner’s “Magic Fire Music”, a piano transcription from the opera “Die Walkure”.
The music is heroic, scintillating and continues with the program’s “light” theme. The remainder of the program features the music of the Romantic composer, Franz Liszt. The first work, “Angélus! Prière aux anges gardiens” is from Liszt’s late period, composed just a few years before his death.
Often noted as the greatest pianist ever, Liszt stopped concertizing, and later in life turned more toward a spiritual existence, even taking up residence at an abbey. With “Angélus! Prière aux anges gardiens”, there is little virtuosity, but just reflective calm, simplicity, and directness of expression anticipating impressionism, and a new style moving away from Romanticism.
And now for the “darkness”, Metchkov concludes the program with Liszt’s diabolical “Totentanz/Dance of Death”. Darkness is a theme with many Romantic composers, and Liszt had a huge curiosity with death, where death figures into many of his compositions. “Totentanz” make constant references to the medieval Gregorian chant melody, “Dies irae/Day of Wrath”.
Originally, a concerto for piano and orchestra, tonight Zahari will play Liszt’s solo piano arrangement. This is ferociously difficult piano-writing, where indeed one may have to summons the devil to get through the work.
Zahari Metchkov Biography:
Both a pianist and an organist, Dr. Zahari Metchkov has performed at such venues as New York’s Avery Fisher Hall and Washington’s Kennedy Center. He has concertized in Israel, Bulgaria, and the United States. Dr. Metchkov released his first CD in 2008 - a recording of works for piano and orchestra by Franz Liszt and Cesar Franck and a second recording project featuring solo works for piano and organ completed in the Spring of 2014.
Native of Sofia, Bulgaria, Dr. Metchkov holds BM in piano and organ performance, MM in piano performance, and DMA in piano performance with a minor in music theory from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Cleveland, Ohio.
In 2010 he joined Colorado State University-Pueblo’s department of music in the capacity of Assistant Professor of Music, teaching applied piano, piano related courses, as well as music theory. He was the 2013 recipient of the CSU-Pueblo’s Outstanding Service and Transformative Leadership Award and the 2014 recipient of CHASS Outstanding Faculty of the Year. In 2018, he received the Steinway & Sons Top Teacher Award. Dr. Metchkov has also taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music as well as Youngstown State University.
Currently Dr. Metchkov is the Artistic Director of the Pueblo Keyboard Arts Festival and Piano Conversations Concert Series, Pueblo, as well as Rocky Mountain Music Alliance Concert Series, Colorado Springs. As a performer he has appeared in the Mostly Mozart Music Festival, Pianofest in the Hamptons, Bridgehampton Music Festival, Sofia Music Weeks, Varna Summer Music, Geneva Chamber Music Festival, New Year’s Music Days Festival, and San Angelo Piano Festival, Varna Music Festival, and Sofia Music weeks.
He has appeared live on radio CPR-Denver, WCLV-Cleveland, Bulgarian National Radio, Radio Alma Mater-Sofia.
Placing high priority over the education of young pianists in Southern Colorado, Dr. Metchkov is currently the President of the Colorado State Music Teachers Association, a chapter of the Music Teachers National Association.
He is a frequent guest adjudicator and clinician to numerous piano festivals in Colorado and strives to promote well-structured study of music, specifically piano, to young people of all ages and their families. He is a founding member of the Southern Colorado Music Adventure Camp.
Dr. Metchkov has been enjoying an active artistic life as a soloist, chamber artist, as well as church musician. He has been a guest artist with the Pueblo Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Colorado State University-Pueblo Orchestra, Colorado State University-Pueblo Wind Ensemble, Suburban Symphony, University Circle Chorale, University Circle Wind Ensemble, and Pleven Philharmonic. Besides music, he also enjoys skiing and is steadily working on climbing Colorado’s fifty-four 14ers.
Classically Alive features diverse monthly house concerts, which include food, drink, and time for guests to socialize, and mingle with the musicians. At the venue, founder, director, and pianist, Dr. Abe Minzer performs along with many top musicians of the Pikes Peak region.
Additionally, Classically Alive hosts world-class visiting artists of national and international reputation, often as part of the Piano Masterworks series and through collaboration with the German arts organization, Weltklassik.
Since its inception in 2006, Classically Alive has presented over 150 concerts featuring over 100 musicians. The eclectic offerings include a wide range of classical, as well as contemporary, popular styles, jazz, and world music.
For more information, please visit: http://ClassicallyAlive.com
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