(PRINCETON, NJ) -- On Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 4:00pm, Altamura Legacy Concerts (ALC) at Princeton United Methodist Church presents the final concert of its exceptionally well received first season which presented over thirty distinguished artists from Princeton, New York and Italy side by side with students from Legacy Arts International's All-Abilities and Youth Ambassadors of Excellence in five concerts where over-flow seating was necessary to welcome enthusiastic audiences. Showtime is 4:00pm.
The closing concert features J.S. Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations performed by Italian pianist Andrea Turini. Admission is $40, $10 for students, cash at the door or reserved seating purchased online. The church is located on Nassau Street at Vandeventer Avenue. Doors are at 3:30pm with a pre-concert and welcoming Coffee/Tea Bar in the venue organized by Illy At Earth’s End.
“I especially love playing and listening to Bach in early Spring as a sort of cleansing for the soul and Andrea Turini’s USA tour in April with the Goldberg Variations provides us with the perfect opportunity to bring him to our Princeton audiences to close the season,” says Cristina Altamura, artistic director. This mammoth set of variations is not only beloved among pianophiles but also a favorite with cinephiles as it has been used in classic and cult films such as The English Patient, Silence of the Lambs, and Before Sunrise.
Hailing from the Tuscany region in Italy, Andrea Turini will follow his Princeton appearance with a concert at the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Ave. in New York City. Turini is a winner of various international piano competitions, most significant of which are the first prize at the 7th international competition “Citta di Roma” and at the 11th international competition “Ibla Grand Prize” where he was also awarded a special mention for the best interpretation of Bach and Ravel. He has made a brilliant career performing in the main Italian cities as well as in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Serbia, Montenegro, Holland, Israel, Austria, Portugal, Norway, USA, Macedonia and Poland. He teaches at the Conservatory “Gioacchino Rossini” in Pesaro and is also the artistic director of the Accademia Musicale Valdarnese and International Piano Competition Humberto Quagliata Città di San Giovanni Valdarno.
In recent years, the appearance of several distinguished Italian pianists and professors in Princeton is directly thanks to ALC Artistic Director and pianist Cristina Altamura. A 1997 Fulbright Fellow to Italy, Altamura studied with Franco Scala, founder of the immensely influential Imola Piano Academy. In 2018-19, Altamura created a cultural exchange between the Italian academy and the Music Department at Princeton University. Connecting both institutions allowed her to introduce young pianists to Italy’s historic role as the birthplace of the piano (by Cristofori) and the Imola Piano Academy “Encounters with the Masters” as a hotbed of pianistic excellence.
A portion of proceeds from tickets supports and funds Legacy Arts International’s music educational programs such as the All-Abilities Music Creation Project which commissions new pieces of music for students whose educational needs are not being met by the current repertoire and pedagogy for their instrument, due to factors which could include a disability, lack of representation in the field, or other unmet needs. Students are then presented alongside LAI’s Youth Ambassadors of Excellence in pre-concerts to open for headlining guest artists of the concert series.
Altamura Legacy Concerts is a new concert series developed in 2023 by pianist and artistic director Cristina Altamura, featuring herself and a roster of guest artists performing on a newly restored 1924 Steinway B grand piano at Princeton United Methodist Church, home of the majestic Tiffany stained-glass window depicting St. George that graces its façade. Concerts are on selected Sundays at 4:00pm in the Sanford Davis Room of Princeton UMC, adjacent to the church’s sanctuary. Guest artists range from some of Italy’s and Russia’s most illustrious piano masters, to New York’s current avant-garde, to Princeton’s own community of distinguished pianists. Altamura will be joined by her husband, Sō Percussion’s Adam Sliwinski, for an informal talk at the beginning of each program.
Registered as Inter-Cities Performing Arts, Inc. 501©3, Legacy Arts International is a Princeton-based non-profit musical arts organization which facilitates cultural exchange, initiates performances and educational programs to build vibrant artistic communities, and documents important artistic legacies.
In recognition of the cultural impact and enrichment the series brings to the Princeton area community, Altamura Legacy Concerts is proudly supported by Jacobs Music Company, one of the nation’s most respected piano merchants and the Tri-State region’s exclusive Steinway dealer representative for new, Steinway Factory restored, and certified pre-owned Steinway & Sons pianos, and Steinway’s Boston and Essex pianos.
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