Blog Posts - Pianissimo!

Windy City Sensation, Pianissimo! Chicago's Premiere Virtuoso Piano Ensemble

Our very first video, "Pianissimo!" is now uploaded for viewing!

6/12/2015

Due to the Herculean efforts of myself and my colleagues, Pianissimo!' first video is finally completed, uploaded and ready for viewing!
We hope you enjoy it, and we hope you will join us for our "Birthday Weekend". June 19th we hold our first ever Gala Fundraiser and on June 21st we make our first public appearances at Make Music Chicago- at DePaul University Concert Hall and at the Steinway Piano Gallery of Chicago. Thank you for your support! Let us know how you like the video!

Getting ready....get set.....go!

5/14/2015

All systems are go! Pianissimo! is in full rehearsal mode, even as our academic teaching and accompanying duties are at a feverish pitch with end-of-year activites.
We've sent out invites for our First Annual Fundraiser on June 19th, and have sent out a mass email about our Make Music Chicago performance on June 21.
Our first rehearsal at Merit School of Music enabled us to do a read through of Margarita Zelenaia's transcription of Vivaldi's Summer for Four Pianos, and Ilya Levinson's original work for Four Pianos, "Fireball", plus practice time for our two-piano, eight hand repertoire we will be performing on June 21st for Make Music Chicago at DePaul University.
Big shout-out to DePaul University for hosting us on MMC Day and to The Merit School of Music for hosting our Chicago Debut on September 12!
Yesterday we rehearsed in my home our Two-Piano - Eight Hands works: Smetana's Sonata, and Saint-Saen's Danse Macabre. Next week in our rehearsal we will record some audio and video to use in our promotions.
So, it looks like our program for June 21st ( which is somewhat different than our Debut Concert program since it will only feature two pianos- not four) will be as follows:
Smetana: Sonata for Two Pianos-Eight Hands
Mozart-Anderson: Papageno
Schubert-Anderson: Erlkonig
Bizet-Chasins: Carmen Fantasy
Gershwin-Tsfasman: Fantasy on The Man I Love
Lutoslawksi: Paganini Variations
Debussy-Busser: Petit Suite- En Bateau and Minuet
Rachmaninoff-Babin: It's Lovely Here and Spring Waters
Strauss-Chasins: The Blue Danube Waltzes
Saint-Saens-Guiraud: Danse Macabre
Beethoven-Herbert: Egmont Overture

We hope our friends and fans will come out to enjoy our piano music on two and four pianos!

Susan, Irina, Svetlana, and Elena

Program is coming together!

4/25/2015

Happy to report that our program for Make Music Chicago and our September Chicago Debut is shaping up nicely. We will be performing a combination of music for Four Pianos, for Two Pianos, Eight Hands, and for Two Pianos, Four Hands.

Here's just a small sampling of the works we are preparing for our upcoming concerts and multi-media shows:
Vivaldi/Zelenaia: "Summer" from The Seasons for Four Pianos
Barilari: Canyengue for Four Pianos
Tchaikovsky: Capriccio for Two Pianos, Eight Hands
Levinson: "Fireball" for Four Pianos
Rimsky-Korsakov/Zelenaia: Scheherazade Fantasy for Four Pianos
Smetana: Sonata for Two Pianos, Eight Hands
Bizet-Chasins: Carmen Fantasy
Rachmaninoff: Suite No.2, Tarantella

Stay tuned for more exciting news and events!

The DATE is SET!

4/3/2015

The date is now set for the Chicago Debut of Pianissimo!- Saturday evening, September 12, 2015 at 7:30pm at the Merit School of Music Gottlieb Hall. Tickets will be priced at $5, 10, 20 and 50. Call 201-788-1968 for more information. Donors and patrons for this event are being actively sought. Your contributions and support will be greatly appreciated. Please see our contact page for a direct link to make donations. Funding is needed for our photography, video and audio recordings, print and internet marketing, commissioning fees for new works, and much more. Please join us and be a part of a new and exciting addition to the Chicago music scene!

Busy, busy, busy.....

3/3/2015

Margarita Zelenaia is now hard at work arranging Vivaldi's "Summer" from The Four Seasons, for our Make Music Chicago Day performance, and she is also working on a brand new transcription of a rather famous work which we will present at our Fall Debut. Also in the works is a new original work by Ilya Levinson he is composing just for our ensemble, and a brand new arrangement of Elbio Barilari's orchestra work Canyengue is on its way to us, too!
We have assembling and arranging additional Two Piano-Eight Hands works by Tchaikovsky, Liszt and a Broadway Medley unlike any you have ever heard!
Our music program will be eclectic, classical, modern and fun! Expect everything and anything!
In the meantime, we are just about ready to upload our new photos, and I am planning to move and arrange my four pianos into one room of my home, so we can start regular rehearsals here.
Mark your calendar for June 21st to come hear us in Chicago!
Susan

Pianissimo! holds its first professional photo shoot

2/16/2015

Pianissimo! had a very long, fun-filled day of our first ensemble photo shoot. Starting out early by 9am, we carpooled all together in my "Ms Piano"mobile..( A Ford Escape- yes, that's my license plate!) heading for a marvelously talented group of hair stylists and makeup artists at Steven Papageorge Academy in Lincoln Park. Our stylist/designer Benjamin Cottrell met us there, along with our photographer Carlos Rudolfo Chinchilla. Our first informal poses were shot right there at the studio, then we had make-up and hair re-dos to prep for our "formal" shot. Mother Nature was in full force, so it took some time to arrive at our "glamour photo shoot" destination! We could not have accomplished any of this without the incredible talent and vision of our dear friend and colleague, Ani Gogova, who arranged the entire photo shoot for us and was with us every step of the way. Irina, Svetlana, Elena and I are so grateful to have worked with this wonderful team who will help us launch our new Piansisimo! ensemble with great, fun, cutting-edge fashion photography. Hugs to our new friends! Can't wait to post our new photos!

"Divorced before the debut..."

2/13/2015

Well, sadly, the seven of us were not meant to be. Two pianists dropped out, with concerns and disagreements about music and logistics and other apparently unreconcilable differences. A third pianist also became over-committed and regrettably had to bow out for now. Nagging questions remain for us- should we invite two or three more pianists to be a band of six, or seven, or will we be stronger as TWO two- piano teams banding together as one? For now, this seems like the best option- because we can perform as four pianists on just two pianos, or on three or four pianos, and we can feature guest pianists and guest duo-piano teams to join us for any of our "special event" concerts. Plus, people will likely hear more of us individually now, since we are not seven but just four. I think our new nickname should be "The Fab Four!"
While we were truly sad to have our colleagues leave before "the party" started, our initial disappointment has given way to our relief to be working with totally committed, and highly experienced piano-ensemble members. The remaining four of us- myself, Irina, Svetlana and Elena, are truly dedicated to the art of multi-piano ensemble work, and each of us has been doing this seriously for most of our lives. That will bode well for our success as an all-women piano band of the 21st century! Men need not apply!

Composers hard at work....

1/30/2015

Composers Ilya Levinson, Elbio Barilari, and Maragarita Zelenaia are hard at work creating brand new works for Pianissimo!'s first performances on Make Music Chicago Day. on June 21st and our Chicago Debut in the Fall of 2015. Plus we are working together on some of our own original arrangements- a big surprise!

The Insider's Scoop on the birth of Chicago's newest Classical ensemble!

1/23/2015

It's been my dream for many years to create and be a part of a large, multi-piano ensemble. It's not as if I am lacking in piano partners or anything like that- I have enjoyed a long duo piano career with my husband, Steve Greene and new friend and colleague, Irina Feoktistova. But, recollections of a one-time performance of Liszt's Hexameron with 5 other pianists, and an old video of a Monster Piano Concert dating back to 1990, kept hidden in a closet, were just haunting me, but necessarily suppressed due to other ongoing musical committments over the years.
Enter a newcomer to Chicago- Yana Reznik. We met on Facebook, and then decided to meet for lunch at the Artist's Cafe in early December 2014. Displaying an abundance of energy and enthusiasm, she struck me as someone who might be interested in a new endeavor such as a large piano ensemble. And while she was telling me of her marvelous ambitions to start a TV series, I began telling her about my ambition to start a large piano ensemble. Clearly of a similar virtuosic temperament, we jointly agreed upon forming a multi-piano ensemble of just women pianists- and the choices of who to invite to join us became clear instantaneously: Irina, my current duo partner, Svetlana and Elena, another distinguished duo piano team and mutual friends, Ani, a collaborative artist with cellist Ian Maksin, and Marta, pianist of the Lincoln Trio. The biggest question for all of us active concert pianists was whether each of us would have the time or interest to join forces in another ensemble. Would we be a one-time event, or should we be a permanent ensemble? Would we even get along? What music would we play? How would we manage to get SEVEN PIANOS on a stage?
I quickly designed a website collecting photos and info about each of us, and randomly assigning us a name- The Chicago Seven, changed it to Sheridan Seven, The Windy City Seven......and went through a whole brainstorming session with the girls on January 3rd. Over glasses of wine and delicacies left over from New Year's festivities, we discussed anything and everything you could imagine and had a great time together! Svetlana came up with a great new name, Pianissimo Ensemble, which we have now shortened to Pianissimo! We delegated responsibilities, selected a date for our first professional group photo shoot (February 15th- being organized by our cutting-edge, fashion-forward member, Ani), and discussed our MUSIC! Elena and I came up with two great themes for our concert programming, and we all started working with composers and soliciting new works, arrangements and transcriptions for our big "Debut" next Fall 2015.
Our "preview" performances will take place on June 21st- the Summer Soltice, and Make Music Chicago Day!
So, come witness and be a part of the BIRTH of a NEW, UNIQUE AND EXCITING ENSEMBLE:
Pianissimo! We're anything but!
Susan Merdinger, Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Pianissimo!- along with Svetlana, Yana, Ani, Irina, Elena and Marta

Pianissimo!, susan merdinger, svetlana belsky, irina feoktistova, elena doubovsitskaya,