The first stop is an 18th century piano sonata by Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn. Haydn’s contributions to the sonata form were among many innovations by this friend of Mozart and teacher of Beethoven. Mineva plays a section of one of his earliest, the Sonata in G.
The next stop is 19th century Poland and two pieces by Frederic Chopin, the Nocturne in F minor and a piano Etude. “This is the year of Chopin,” Mineva notes—the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1810.
Then to France for pieces by 20th century composers Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen. “They are very similar in how they see the world in pictures,” Mineva said. She will play her own reduction for solo piano of one of Debussy’s most famous works, “Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faune,” and three Preludes by Messiaen, each depicting a feature of the landscape.
The second half of Mineva’s concert features a piece about a Persian Princess and one of the world’s most famous storytellers: Scheherazade. It’s a section from “Masques” by the 20th century Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, which is considered a “skill-testing challenge to pianists,” according to a contemporary Polish music scholar.
The journey ends back in France with “Choral and Variations” by contemporary composer Henri Dutilleux, which Mineva calls “a jazzy audience-pleaser.”
Before joining the HSU Music faculty, Daniela Mineva taught at the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded an excellence in teaching prize in 2007. Among her accomplishments as a pianist are an award from the Jean Francaix piano competition in Paris and a “Highest Artistic Level of Performance” award for a solo recital at a festival in Italy, both also in 2007. She played in several group concerts at HSU last year, notably with HSU Music violinist Cindy Moyer, and guest artists, violinist Bin Huang and pianist Caleb Harris.
Pianist Daniela Mineva performs her first HSU solo concert on Saturday September 18 at 8 pm in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata.
Tickets: $8/$3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.
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