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The KPAC Blog features classical music news, reviews, and analysis from South Texas and around the world.

Brahms, Wieniawski, and a Young Pianist

Pianist Xinran Shi, 13, from San Jose, California.
Courtesy of From the Top
/
NPR
Pianist Xinran Shi, 13, from San Jose, California.

On this edition of NPR's From the Top, hear the first work Brahms wrote for a solo instrument and a stunning Wieniawski Polonaise played by a 13-year-old violinist. We also meet a teenage baritone who has been drawn to community activism since childhood, a guitarist who plays an arrangement of Dizzy Gillespie's Night in Tunisia, and a young pianist who shares a special tip she got from piano superstar Lang Lang...play like a grandma!

PROGRAM:

  • Pianist Xinran Shi, 13, from San Jose, California: Opus 23, 'Ten Preludes' - Prelude No. 6 and No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
  • Baritone Raghav Ramgopal, 16, from Los Altos Hills, California: Ideale Melodia by Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916)
  • Cellist Sara Flexer, 14, from Palo Alto, California: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38, Mvmt 2 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
  • Guitarist Jack Davisson, 17, from Palo Alto, California: A Night in Tunisia by Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993) arr. Roland Dyens (1955-2016)
  • Violinist Neal Eisfeldt, 13, from Lake Zurich, Illinois: Polonaise de concert in D major, Op. 4 by Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880)

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