Jeanne Golan, pianist, performs tango-inspired music by contemporary composers and recovered voices composers who were persecuted and censored by the Nazi regime.On January 1st, 2021, STEINWAY & SONS releases Jeanne Golan's newest
album It Takes One to Tango (STNS 30164). Golan describes the album as a collection
featuring tango-inspired gems that are largely unknown.
The works are by recovered voices and living composers, two arenas that have long
captured my fancy, centered on a dance I’ve come to embrace.
The album itself
mixes these composers and their time periods, whose music speaks to one another
in unexpected ways.Recovered Voices refers to composers who were persecuted and
often murdered as a consequence of the Nazi Regime. This association can box them into
being considered writers of ‘serious’ music.
But they just as seriously absorbed the newly popular jazz and cabaret scenes popping up in Paris and Berlin.
Wilhelm Grosz and Erwin Schulhoff each wrote stylish, innovative and appealing
suites based on dances that were all the rage in the 1920’s. Born a generation
earlier, Wanda Landowska also turned to a current dance for her inspiration.The
first ‘one to tango’ is actually the composer writing in the studio.
When the written page is passed on to the performer, a partnership forms whereby the
music is then brought to life through the player’s choreography at the keyboard,
much like the dance itself. For the contemporary tangos,
I’ve had the luxury of corresponding with each of their composers, working alongside them to record
many of these works for the first time.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Pianist Jeanne Golan continues to offer fresh perspectives on combining standard
and contemporary works in innovative ways. Her programming reflects her active
involvement in the fostering of works by new composers and discovering
relatively unknown musical treasures. With an impressive collection of pieces
written for her and that she has premiered and recorded, her solo and
collaborative albums appear under the STEINWAY
& SONS, Albany, Capstone, Arsis Audio and
Newport Classic labels. Ms. Golan has been featured at such venues as Carnegie
and Merkin Halls in NYC. Her range of experience includes work with the Philip
Glass Ensemble, members of the Boston Symphony and Metropolitan Opera
Orchestras, with singers as in Innocence Lost: The Berg-Debussy Project and
Songs of Henry Cowell as well as appearances with the American Symphony
Orchestra and Greenwich Symphony. Her collaborations with the Grammy-winning
Attacca Quartet resulted in the STEINWAY
& SONS release of WEINBERG, an acclaimed album
of a doubly persecuted composer.Ms.Golan is bringing Recovered
Voices repertoire to concert and
educational venues across the country for specially designed programs that
balance performance and discussion, as well as in recording. Such appearances
have taken place at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the Spertus Institute
around Chicago, USC in Los Angeles, and, WFMT and WQXR Radio Stations. Her
Ravinia debut was hosted by James Conlon, where she performed piano works of
Viktor Ullmann whose complete sonatas she has recorded for STEINWAY
& SONS. Her blog, Ullmann at Hand: A pianist’s
journey, is located at jeannegolan.com.Ms. Golan holds a DMA from the Eastman
School of Music and a BA with Distinction from Yale University. She is a
professor at SUNY/Nassau, where she has received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award on
multiple occasions. Jeanne Golan is a STEINWAY ARTIST
ABOUT STEINWAY & SONS LABEL
The STEINWAY & SONS music label produces exceptional albums of solo piano music across all genres.
The label — a division of STEINWAY & SONS, maker of the world’s finest pianos — is
a perfect vessel for producing the finest quality recordings by some of the most talented pianists in the world.
"Technically polished and superbly expressive.” New York Times
“Technical and musical Challenges are wonderfully surmounted by Golan” MusicWeb International
“She played this varied and demanding program with aplomb and no little technical flair while keeping the focus on the music itself". Philadelphia Inquirer