P2: Music for Two Pianos and Percussion by Bartók and Zivkovic
MacPhail faculty member, Miryana Moteva and guest artists Anna Keiserman, Fernando Meza, Adam Rappel and Erich Rieppel perform piano and percussion works, featuring Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion by Bela Bartók and Die Arten des Wassers (The Art of Waters) composed by Nebojsa Zivkovic .
This concert is free for all youth (under 18 years old) and MacPhail students. Adult ticket prices are $20 and can be purchased online.
Performer Bios
Miryana Moteva has recently appeared as a soloist with Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Sergei Prokofiev and in chamber recitals at Sundin Music Hall, the Basilica of Saint Mary, the Fitzgerald Theater, the Schubert Club, the Baroque Room, University of Wisconsin-River Falls and the Cowles Center for Performing Arts in collaboration with Curio Dance. She performs regularly on MacPhail Center for Music’s Spotlight Concert Series, the University of Minnesota’s Balkanicus New Music Series and the Schubert Club’s Courtroom Concerts. Her performances have been featured on Classical MPR.
Miryana has appeared at festivals such as March Music Days and Music and Earth International Festivals in Bulgaria, and San Daniele International Piano Meeting in Italy. Currently, she is on the faculty of MacPhail Center for Music as a piano teaching artist and a staff pianist. Previously, she has served as a Collaborative and Applied Piano Teaching Assistant at University of Minnesota, and as an Accompanying Fellow at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
Miryana holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Collaborative Piano at University of Minnesota. A native of Bulgaria, she is a graduate of the National School of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Russian-born and New York-based pianist Anna Keiserman is known for her creative programming, expressive freedom, and singular vision. Performance credits in New York City include performing at Le Poisson Rouge, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the Fête de La Musique at the invitation of the French-American Piano Society. Other notable venues include the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts (Toms River, NJ) and the Strand Theater (Hudson Falls, NY), Ateneu Barcelonès (Barcelona, Spain). In the summer of 2019 Anna embarked on a concert tour through Spain, premiering the Sonata Cerdanyenca for Cello and Piano by Marc Migó Cortes.
As a soloist, Anna has performed concerti with the Volgograd Symphony Orchestra, University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, Somerset Symphony Orchestra among others, and also toured through Italy, Spain and Russia. Among Dr. Keiserman’s awards are top prizes in international piano competitions in Russia, as well as second place in the 2019 American Prize Competition. In 2017 Anna received the “Culture and Art Award” from the New Russia Cultural Center in Rensselaer, NY, for her dedication to promoting arts and culture in the community.
With her debut album, Russian Mosaic, released in 2019 on the Sheva Collection label, Anna offers rarely heard gems by Rachmaninoff, Shchedrin, Smirnov, and Medtner. Hailed as “the impressive pianist who played brilliantly”by New York Concert Review, the Atlanta Audio Club observed: “Her insights into the four masters of Russian piano music we have here bring them to instant, vibrant life before our very ears. Keiserman applies her notable brilliance to create the strongest impressions.”Highlights of the 2022 season included concert tours and masterclasses in Virginia, Kansas, and a recording of solo piano works by composer Jordi Cervelló. The trio for saxophone, bassoon and piano Bercesue-Lament by Marc Migó Cortes was be released in the Fall 2022 by PARMA Records label. As an adjudicator Anna Keiserman served on the jury of the International George Gershwin Competition, Young Pianist Competition of New Jersey, NJ Arts Festival, Piano Teachers Congress of new York.
Anna Keiserman is currently Artistic Director of the Mozaika Concert Series at Raritan Valley Community College, a series that has been created to promote multicultural dialogue through the performance of music from the classical canon through to the 21st century. She has also created several custom programs for the Salmagundi Art Club in New York City. Anna Keiserman has served as faculty at the NYU Steinhardt School of the Arts, at the Rutgers University Extension Division, and at William Paterson University. Having earned degrees from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow and the University of Minnesota, Dr. Keiserman completed her Doctorate in Piano Performance at Rutgers University, where she earned the Elizabeth Wyckoff Durham Award for academic distinction and excellence in piano performance. In September 2020, Anna joined the faculty of Raritan Valley Community College as an Assistant Professor of Piano.
Fernando Meza is Chair of Percussion Studies at the University of Minnesota School of Music and a regular guest percussionist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra with whom he has recorded and toured in such recognized venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Musikverein, and Berliner Philharmonie, amongst others, and on international cultural diplomacy tours in Cuba and South Africa. He has toured in Japan, Costa Rica and the USA, with legendary marimba virtuoso Keiko Abe, and is featured in her recording of Conversation in the Forest for the CD Keiko Abe and the World’s Leading Percussionists. Meza was one of the 5 original percussionists for the Broadway production of Disney’s The Lion King; was the organizer/host of Marimba 2010 International Festival and Conference in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and is a performing artist/clinician for Grover Pro Percussion, Zildjian, and OBiolley Instruments, and percussion faculty for the Orchestra of the Americas since 2003. His recording J.S. Bach: Suites for Unaccompanied Cello performed on Marimba by Fernando Meza is distributed through cdbaby.com, iTunes, and other digital providers.
Dr. Adam Rappel takes great pride in being a versatile percussionist. He has performed in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria and Sweden. He has also performed with the Orchestra of the Americas – in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. In addition, he performed in the first International Percussion Ensemble festival in Costa Rica with the University of Minnesota Percussion Ensemble. As an orchestral percussionist, he performs regularly with the Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Opera, and has performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Mankato Symphony Orchestra, La Crosse Symphony Orchestra and the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra.
As a solo and chamber performer, Adam has shared stages with Valerie Dee Naranjo (“Saturday Night Live” percussionist), the late Kakrabe Lobi (African Gyil Master), The Paris Conservatory Saxophone Ensemble, the Renegade Ensemble, Eugene Rousseau, and Bobby McFerrin among others. He has performed and collaborated with international percussion luminaries such as Bob Becker (Canada), Eric Sammut (France), Pedro Carneiro (Portugal), Ivana Bilic (Croatia), Jeff Queen, John Wooton and Casey Cangelosi among others.
Dr. Rappel has held teaching positions at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, MacPhail Center for Music and Inver Hills Community College. He is currently serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of Percussion at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. Adam received his Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, studying with Peter Kogan, Phil Hey, Steve Yeager and Fernando Meza. He is the first percussionist to ever receive the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He is proudly endorsed by Innovative Percussion, and is a Yamaha Concert Percussion artist and clinician.
Erich Rieppel was appointed Principal Timpani of the Minnesota Orchestra in the Fall of 2018. Prior to that, he held the same title at New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami Beach, Florida. Rieppel has performed as Principal Timpanist with the Seoul Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony. Since 2013, he has played timpani and percussion with the Lakes Area Music Festival in northern Minnesota. At age 19, during a performance with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, his playing caught the ears of a critic from the New York Times. “… and the timpanist, Erich Rieppel, jousted mightily with Mr. Watts in the boisterous finale.” In a performance of Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Pioneer Press noted “And timpanist Erich Rieppel seized the many opportunities to send hearts racing that Dvorak afforded him.”
Rieppel is on faculty at OAcademy and has given masterclasses at the Seoul Performing Arts Center, Indiana University, the University of Minnesota, University of Hawaii, National Youth Orchestra of the USA, and the Ibera Academy in Medellin, Colombia, the Northland Timpani Summit based in Minneapolis, The Final Round seminar in Chicago, and the University of Panama, the Hawaii Youth Symphony and the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony. In February of 2019 at the New World Center, he performed with the 507 Collective, a piano/percussion quartet that includes his father, Dr. Daniel Rieppel.
Believing in being a multi-faceted musician, Rieppel has experience in arts administration, college teaching, music librarianship, composition and conducting. He made his professional conducting debut with the Southwest Minnesota Orchestra in 2013 and returned in 2022 to conduct with his father performing on piano. In the 2014-15 season, he was principal conductor of the Indiana Youth Musicians and made his debut with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (IN) the same year. He also led performances with the self-founded Bloomington Sinfonietta in Bloomington, Indiana.
A native of Minneapolis, Erich grew up near Marshall, MN. He attended Indiana University for his bachelor’s with a minor in conducting and master’s degrees where he studied a variety of percussion with John Tafoya, Kevin Bobo, Steve Houghton, and Michael Spiro. He has also studied with, David Herbert, Shannon Wood, Ed Stephan, Tom Freer and Josef Gumpinger of the Vienna Radio Symphony. He spent one summer at the Aspen Music Festival and three winters at the New York String Orchestra Seminar. Rieppel proudly endorses Freer Percussion Products and Pearl/Adams percussion. In his free time, Erich plays hockey.