Monday, Oct. 23, 2023 • 7:30 p.m.
Timashev Recital Hall
Columbus, Ohio
Orlay Alonso, piano
Griset Damas-Roche, Flamenco dancer
PROGRAM
Pantomima (Pantomime) from El Amor Brujo
Manuel de Falla (1876–1946)
El círculo mágico (The magic circle)
from El Amor Brujo
Manuel de Falla (1876–1946)
Animé from Sonatine
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Moderato Cantabile molto espressivo
Allegro molto
Adagio ma non troppo
Prelude in G-sharp minor, Op. 32, No. 12
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
Vallée d’Obermann from Annees de Pelerinage, Switzerland
Franz Liszt (1811–1886)
Lento assai; Più lento
Un poco più di moto ma sempre lento
Recitativo; Più mosso; Presto
Lento; sempre animando sin’ al fine
Toccata in e minor, BWV 914
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Danza Ritual del Fuego (Ritual Fire Dance) from El Amor Brujo
Manuel de Falla (1876–1946)
Gitanerías from Suite Española “Andalucia”
Ernesto Lecuona (1895–1963)
El Puerto from Suite Iberia, Book I
Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909)
Asturias (Leyenda) from Suite Española, Op. 47
Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909)
About the Artist
Orlay Alonso has been lauded as “a real virtuoso, equally at home with solo, chamber and concerto repertoire, committed to sharing every note with the audience. With his instinctive communicative gifts, Alonso takes the audience along on his imaginative and thought-provoking journey” — Anthony Aibel
Alonso has captivated audiences across the globe with his elegance and intensity since his Carnegie Hall debut in 2003, and has graced the stages at some of the most prestigious concert halls in the United States and Canada, and as far away as Punta Arenas, the southernmost region of Chile. Alonso has garnered top prizes at numerous national and international piano competitions.
He obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts from The Ohio State University in 2015. He holds degrees from Yale University, Mannes School of Music, and Manhattan School of Music. During his professional studies, he was the recipient of two Graduate Achievement Awards, the Gertrude Kuehefuhs Piano Accompanists Endowment Fund Award, and the Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum Award from Ohio State; as well as the Albéniz Institute of Music Commendation for Outstanding Achievements, the Ann-Marie McDermott Memorial Scholarship, and the Parents Association Prize at the Manhattan School of Music. His impressive array of teachers and mentors includes Lilian Kallir, Claude Frank, Horacio Gutiérrez, Juana Zayas and Steven Glaser.
Alonso is a frequent guest of colleges and universities across the United States, including Yale University, Capital University, Otterbein University, Syracuse University, Queens College, Eastman School of Music, The New School, the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia, SUNY at Buffalo State, the City University of New York (CUNY), Mansfield University, and Bloomsburg University, where he plays recitals, gives lectures and conducts master classes.
In 2010, Alonso was one of a small group of individuals selected to receive a prestigious alumniVentures grant from the Yale University School of Music to support Music in the Heights, an outreach program at the George Washington Educational Campus in Washington Heights, New York City. The program brought four yearly outreach concerts to the community, as well as after-school instrumental lessons and ensemble coaching for underprivileged children.
Giving back and helping others was deeply ingrained in Alonso from an early age. Aside from Music in the Heights, he has organized and participated in benefit concerts in support of CityMusic Columbus, Trouville East, Columbus City Schools, The Columbus Museum of Art, the American Liszt Society Ohio Chapter, the World Trade Center Memorial, the World Schools Foundation, Voices for Hospice, the VA Medical Center (Bronx, New York), and the West 74th Street Residence, an adult residential living space in New York City that provides affordable housing and social services for elderly citizens.
Outside of his busy solo career and numerous volunteer projects, Alonso finds time to tour and perform internationally alongside his brother, Orlando, under the moniker, The Alonso Brothers. The duo has been lauded by the New York Concert Review for their “intense feeling and contagious joy.” During the isolation brought on by COVID, the Alonso Brothers used their time to record an album of Cuban music titled Havanesque, a colorful take on the classics of the 1930s through the 1960s; featuring original arrangements in a variety of styles — from the seductive melodies of the bolero and the fiery drive of Latin jazz to the intricate Afro-Cuban rhythms of the mambo and conga. Havanesque celebrates Cuba's diverse culture and rich history.
Alonso, who calls Columbus, Ohio home, recently assumed the role of director of music at St. Mary Catholic Church in German Village, was appointed as executive director of the Music at St. Mary Concert Series (now in its third season), frequently appears alongside Christopher Purdy as co-host of “Musica Cubana” as part of WOSU Radio’s Music in Mid-Ohio series, and received the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Emerging Arts Leader Award in 2022 for “making a significant impact on the central Ohio community through performing, teaching, managing, producing, recording, partnering and advocating for the arts.”
Alonso will join The Ohio State University School of Music piano area in spring semester 2024 to cover the studio of Professor Steven Glaser, who will be on sabbatical for a performance tour of the U.S. and Italy.
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