W.Va. Symphony Concert Still On for Tonight

Grant Cooper, conductor, will present the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra in its second performance of the 2006-2007 season on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m. at Fairmont State University's Colebank Hall. For tickets, call the Box Office at (304) 367-4240.

The Orchestra will play Alexander Mossolov's "The Iron Foundry" and Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2" with pianist Natasha Paremski. The orchestra will conclude with Dmitri Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 5."

Winner of the 2006 Gilmore Young Artist Award, virtuoso pianist Natasha Paremski, who was described by BBC Music Magazine as having "flawless technique and unbeatable energy," continues to charm audiences throughout Europe and the U.S.

Only 19 years old, her past engagements have included performances with the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Houston Symphony, New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall, San Diego Symphony, the Orpheum Foundation for the Advancement of Young Soloists (with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich), Residentie Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She has also given recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, on Ravinia's Rising Stars series, in Seattle, at the Schloss Elmau and Verbier festivals and on the Gilmore Rising Stars Series.

Paremski also continues to extend her performance activity and range beyond the traditional concert hall. She will be featured in a major two-part film for BBC Television on the life and work of Tchaikovsky, shot on location in St. Petersburg, performing excerpts from Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto and other selected works. In the fall of 2006, she played for a third time in "Twin Spirits," a project starring Sting and Trudie Styler that explores the music and writing of Robert and Clara Schumann. She has performed the piece in New York and at Windsor Castle, and returned to Great Britain to perform it at Salisbury Cathedral in November 2006, directed again by John Caird.

With a strong focus on new music, Paremski's growing repertoire demonstrates a breadth of intellectual curiosity and a range of stylistic sensibilities unusual in one so young. At the suggestion of John Corigliano, she is planning several performances of his Piano Concerto in 2007-2008. In recital, she has played several pieces by Fred Hersch, who is currently writing a long-form solo piano piece for her, "Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky." She will premiere Hersch's work for San Francisco Performances at Florence Gould Theater of the Legion of Honor in March 2007. She has also performed Rubinstein's "Fourth Piano Concerto" in the U.S. and Europe in past seasons.

Born in Moscow in May 1987, she began her piano studies at the age of 4 with Nina Malikova at the Andreyev School of Music in Moscow. In 1995 she emigrated with her family to the United States, and became a U.S. citizen in 2001. Since then she has studied both privately and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She currently holds a full scholarship as a student of Pavlina Dokovska at Mannes College of Music in Manhattan.

Paremski made her professional debut at age 9 with the El Camino Youth Symphony in California. At the age of 15 she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and recorded two discs on the Bel Air Music Label with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Yablonsky, the first featuring Anton Rubinstein's "Piano Concerto No. 4" coupled with Rachmaninoff's "Paganini Rhapsody" and the second featuring all of Chopin's shorter works for piano and orchestra.

She won top prizes in the 2002 Bronislaw Kaper Awards sponsored by the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Young Artists in Carnegie Hall - 2000 International Piano Festival; 2000 Shenson Young Artist Concerto Competition in San Francisco; Pinault Musical Society 1999 International Piano Competition in New York; and many others.