Pianist Ariel Dechosa performs at Philamlife Theater

MANILA, Philippines - Listening to world-class Filipino pianists who are based abroad is an event Manila’s music lovers eagerly await. Their performances certainly bring pleasure — indeed an absorbing aural delight that is much talked about long after it is over.

One such artist is pianist Ariel Dechosa whose previous Manila concerts have been well attended and critically acclaimed. Manila’s music lovers will once more get the chance to hear Ariel — who has not been home for quite some time now — in a solo recital this coming month. His tones — big, legate — articulate a tradition associated very much with the Russian school. Ariel is such a gem whose feat solidly rests on a high plane of artistry.

 The UP Alpha Sigma Fraternity Alumni Association, in cooperation with the Philamlife Theater, presents Ariel in a solo piano recital at the Philamlife Theater on July 31, 8 p.m.

The recital is a fund drive for the association’s scholarship fund earmarked for students of the University of the Philippines who are in need of financial assistance. Apart from the avowed humanitarian goal, the presentation likewise highlights the association’s contribution to the task of promoting the country’s world-class talents, according to Atty. Teofilo C. Abejo, II, president of the association.

The program is made up of two formidable sonatas, Brahms’ Sonata in F Minor, Op.5 and Prokofiev’s Sonata No.6 in A Major, Op. 82. With Bach’s Prelude in B Minor, BVW 855, arranged by Aleksandr Ziloti and Prokofiev’s Prelude in C Major, Op. 12, No.7. Dr. Charles J. Hulin IV, who teaches piano and music history at the Chowan University in Murfreesboro, in North Carolina, has written the program notes. He observes that Ariel’s program is “insightfully constructed to frame and compare two monuments in the history of the piano sonata.” The sonatas in the program are “similar in their epical proportions, in the themes of their central arguments, and in the fact that each is a unique manifestation of the technical idiosyncrasies of its composers.”

Ariel studied with Professor Arkady Aronov for his bachelor and master of music degrees at the Manhattan School of Music, where he was given the Harold Bauer Award, the highest prize bestowed to a graduating pianist. Prof. Boris Slutsky was his mentor at the Peabody Institute of Music, where he earned his graduate performance diploma. At Peabody he bagged the coveted Zierler Award. He has also taken regular master classes with Leon Fleisher, Paul Badura-Skoda, Vladimir Feltsman, and Ruth Laredo.

Among the prizes he garnered were: third prize in the 1996 Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition; third prize in the 1994 Santa Barbara Symphony International Piano Competition; first prize in the 1995 Five Towns National Competition and in the 1991 Great Neck Symphony Young Artists Competition. He is an active soloist and chamber musician and has given extensive performances both in Manila and abroad.

Foreign and local critics have hailed him for his solid playing, extremely rich palette, emotive and sensitive phrasings, incredible clean articulation, astounding pianism, big, lush and singing tones, as well as his unabashed abandon, romantic lyricism, and pure passion.

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Tickets are priced at P1,000 and P800, respectively, for orchestra and balcony. For ticket inquiries, call Michael Nera of the UPASFAA project secretariat at 631-2768, and SMS 0918-9822356, or e-mail mnera@upalphasigma.org.