Tuesday 24.1 at 6 pm at Arkadia: Four hands in a maze – Piano works for four hands by Schoenfield, Hindemith and Satie by piano duo Varho/Malmgren

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Dear friend of Arkadia,

You are invited to Four hands in a maze – Piano works for four hands by Schoenfield, Hindemith and Satie by piano duo Varho/Malmgren on Tuesday 24.1 at 6 pm at Arkadia (Nervanderinkatu 11)

 

The piano duo Seppo Varho and Martin Malmgren present a mixture of works for four hands, including Paul Schoenfield’s large-scale suite “Five Days from the Life of a Manic Depressive”, Paul Hindemith’s Sonata and works by Erik Satie.

 

Welcome!

 

Warm regards,

Ian         
www.arkadiabookshop.fi

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Pianoduo Seppo Varho ja Martin Malmgren esittelee laajan nelikätisen piano-ohjelmiston harvinaisuuksia. Ohjelmassa on muun muassa Paul Schoenfieldin sarja ”Five Days from the Life of a Manic Depressive”, Paul Hindemithin sonaatti ja Erik Satien musiikkia.

Biographies:

Seppo Varho

The Finnish pianist Seppo Varho studied first in Espoo Institute of Music (teachers include Monna Kamu, Hanna Aho and Kaija Harjanne) and later from the year 1992 with Konstantin Bogino periodically in Italy, France and Finland. Additionally, he has attended to the master courses of Viktor Derevyanko, Ralf Gothóni, Eero Heinonen, Paavali Jumppanen, Matti Raekallio and Tapani Valsta.

Varho performs as solist, chamber musician and accompanist. He has had accompanying assignments especially in the Espoo Music Institute, and as well in Helsinki Polytechnic Metropolia, Sibelius Academy and in various summer events.

Contemporary music has always been a part of Varho’s repertoire. He has many times performed in the concerts of the Ears Open Society of Helsinki (composer names: Bernd Alois Zimmermann, John Cage, Witold Lutoslawski, Heinz Holliger, in addition to these younger Finnish and Estonian composers). In the summer of 2002 he made the first Finnish performances of the laborious Elliott Carter piano sonata in Raudaskylä and Kuhmo. During 2012-2013 he gave performances of the large piano suite “Éphémères” of Philippe Hersant.

Varho has had many perfgormances in Italy e.g. in the Chioggia summer music festival, the Brescia LeXGiornate event and in the Eterotopie festival of Mantova. With the bass baritone Atlan Karp there have been performance in Estonia in the cities of Tallinn, Pärnu and Tarto.

 

Elsewhere in Finland he has performed in Kauniainen, Helsinki, Porvoo, Vantaa, Kerava, Turku and Kajaani. Outside of Finland, he has performed in Lenzburg, Zürich, Boswil (Switzerland), Austria, France, Germany, Estonia, Israel, Japan and in Italy in additionally in Bergamo, Portogruaro and Tarcento.

 

Martin Malmgren

Pianist Martin Malmgren has made himself known as a versatile performer, equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician and lied pianist. With a repertoire ranging from early baroque up until the music of our times, he takes delight in surprising his audiences by performing unjustly neglected works and composers, in addition to the standard repertoire. Always aiming at finding meaningful connections between different composers, his concert programs typically show a thoughtful approach towards building bridges between different musical styles and periods. Since 2015, he also runs the piano recital series ‘Key Discoveries’ in Helsinki.

Having won several competitions, including the Ilmari Hannikainen Piano Competition 2014, the Ljunggren competition 2013 and the Nordic Yamaha competition 2011, as well as a special award at the Sydney International Piano Competition 2016, he has become a sought-after soloist, performing with orchestras such as with Sinfonia Lahti, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Torun Symphony Orchestra, Oulu Sinfonia, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Mikkelin Kaupunginorkesteri, Helsinki Sinfonietta and others. He often performs at various music festivals, and was invited as Main Guest Artist at the Pasimusic Festival in 2015. In May 2014, he performed the complete Mazurkas by Karol Szymanowski in Helsinki, and the following year, the complete Études by Debussy, in concerts in Helsinki and Kuopio.

In addition to a soloist and recitalist career, Martin takes great interest in lied and chamber music, and enjoys close collaborations with many well-known singers and instrumentalists. His wide musical interests have also led to collaborations with pop singers, jazz musicians and others.

Martin received a bachelor from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and later finished a Masters degree at the Sibelius Academy, studying with Ilmo Ranta. He now continues his studies with Konstantin Bogino at Accademia Musicale Santa Cecilia di Bergamo in Italy.