CENTER FOR MUSICAL EXCELLENCE

• Paul Reale: Drowsey Maggie

“The realm of solo piano music has been especially fruitful in the modern era... An unexpected find is in the music of Paul Reale (b. 1943), as heard in the recording I was fortunate to receive... This is more-or-less neo-classic modernism, with perhaps the presence of Stravinsky and Hindemith as precursors, but reshaped and reinvented with a pronounced musical imagination... I cannot find any fault in the performances and in the end Paul Reale brings us a convincing group of compositions that provide substantial fare and impress in their ultimate musicality. Hear this one if you treasure the modern pianoforte and want something new.”

Gapplegate Review [April 2017]

“[Paul Reale's] writing is pretty tonal, unpretentious, and generally good-natured... The sound is good...”

Estep, American Record Guide [September/October 2017]

"Reale’s affectionate tweaks and twists result in pieces that enchant the ear on their own creative terms... The eight pieces pay affecting tribute to musicians ranging from the Chieftains and Prokofiev to CPE Bach, Ravi Shankar, Beethoven and, well, on and on. Everything has a sparkling sonic personality, as if Reale had probed the sources closely and extracted as much newly minted material as possible within short time spans."

Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone [April 2017]

"I’ve been a real fan of the music of Paul Reale for some years now...so I very much welcomed the opportunity to listen to and write about his works for two pianos and piano four-hands, each of which is a gem... all [pianists are] excellent, and I could not hear any difference in quality between one team and the next. Recorded sound is very lifelike, too, and there’s absolutely no reason that you shouldn’t make tracks to your nearest CD outlet to acquire this wonderful music.”

David DeBoor Canfield , Fanfare [May/June 2017]

“...everything is tonal and easy to listen to without being in any way “easy listening.” [This is a CD] with a great deal to recommend it – including some particularly well-made music that is designed to please contemporary audiences without needing to resort to stilted and stale 'modern' compositional techniques.”

Mark J. Estren, InfoDad [March 2017]

CONFUSION OF IDENTITY AND THE SURPASSING TRUTH

2-Piano and Piano 4-Hands Music of Paul Reale
In the 2014 movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the drama reaches its ultimate focus in intensity with the Captain’s hand-to-hand confrontation with The Winter Soldier, a bionically transformed “Bucky,” a former best friend whose mind has been washed clean in the process of transformation into a killing machine. “You know me,” Steve Rogers says, setting off the inner conflict that leads to Captain America’s final rescue as he is dragged ashore by Bucky. In this case, Bucky’s internal identity conflict produces a surpassing truth, reaffirming the Lockean goodness of human nature. Throughout the arts, the confusion of identity as a path to truth pervades, from Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, to endless scenes in opera: a temporary confusion of Don Giovanni pretending to be Leporello in Act II of Mozart’s opera, to the “Wanderer” in Wagner’s Siegfried, the transformed Wotan. Resolution of the identity conflict tells us something we would not know without the confusion. The identity of the prisoner in Les Misérables or the Picture of Dorian Gray, which is one half of two identities, expose a truth beyond character.

I recently received a bad review for a flute quartet in which the critic complains that I did not use “extended techniques.” A lot of listeners now think that these techniques have become clichés in the absence of real creativity. Everything on this disc is tonal music: this is not your aunt’s bag of ditties.
[Paul Reale | Autumn 2016]


Carl Patrick Bolleia is an active young performer, having collaborated with musicians of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and New Jersey Percussion Ensemble. Performances as soloist, collaborative pianist and as conductor have taken place at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Merkin Hall at The Kaufmann Center in New York City, and at the Brevard Music Center, Northwestern University New Music Conference, Intersection of Jazz and Classical Music Piano Conference at West Virginia University, South Oxford Space Brooklyn and on the New Music Series at William Paterson University. Internationally, Bolleia has appeared at Vienna ConcertoFest and Vianden International Music Festival in Luxembourg. He has also appeared with the HELIX! Contemporary Ensemble and has played harpsichord with the Rutgers Baroque Players. Committed to education, the pianist is a part-time lecturer in piano at Rutgers University and an adjunct professor of piano and collaborative piano at William Paterson University where he served as Director of Music Admissions. He has also lectured at Caldwell University. As a recording artist, he has collaborated for Composers Concordance Records and appears as a soloist on the MSR Classics release, CME Presents: Piano Celebration [MS1559]. Bolleia is a DMA candidate in Piano Performance at Rutgers University, where he studies with Min Kwon. He has also studied with Ursula Oppens and Gary Kirkpatrick, and attended master classes with Alan Feinberg, Nicolas Hodges and Fred Hersch. In addition, Bolleia studies sacred music at The Institute of Sacred Music at Yale, and organ at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey. He is also a liturgical musician, having worked in monasteries in rural Illinois, cathedrals and churches in Italy and Barbados, and as Director of Sacred Music in the Archdiocese of Newark.

Min Kwon maintains a dynamic international career as soloist, chamber musician, teacher and administrator. Recent concerto performances include appearances with the New York Sinfonietta, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, New York Classical Players and with the Wiener Residenz Orchester and Bacau Philharmonic. Kwon has also given recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and at the Steinway halls in London and Sydney. An avid chamber musician, she has appeared at Stavanger Concert Hall, Tartu Festival, Sony Convention, IMF Conference in Switzerland and in Austria, Serbia, Malaysia and Curacao. Festival performances include Aspen, Ravinia, Caramoor and Cape & Islands in the United States, and in France, Germany and the Czech Republic. Since her orchestral debut in Korea, Kwon has appeared with numerous ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, and symphony orchestras of North Carolina, Fort Worth and Atlanta. Internationally, she has performed with Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, and all the major orchestras in Korea. A dedicated teacher and adjudicator, Kwon has presented at institutions and festivals around the world, giving master classes and serving as guest faculty at conservatories in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, at the Royal College of Music, Kuhmo International Music Festival, AMEROPA International Chamber Music Festival, Vianden Music Festival and institutions in the United States, including Juilliard, Mannes and New York University. Kwon holds a DMA and a MM from Juilliard and a BM from the Curtis Institute. Currently Chair of Keyboard Programs at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, she is founder and director of CME The Center for Musical Excellence and Co-Director of Vienna ConcertoFest. Min Kwon is a Steinway Artist.

Patricio Molina is a gifted artist, active as a pianist, church organist, composer and conductor. A musician native of Chile, Molina has appeared in a wide range of venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Borden Auditorium at the Manhattan School and New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), and internationally at the Teatro Municipal in Chile, Odeon Theater in Jordan. His performances have been broadcast on television in the United States and Chile. As a pianist, Molina has been invited by NJPAC to give pre-concert performances for soloists Lang Lang and Anne Sophie Mutter, conductors Lorin Maazel and Jacques Lacombe, and the New York Philharmonic and New Jersey Symphony. He has performed for President Bachelet of Chile, King Abdullah of Jordan and Luciano Pavarotti. Molina has also appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Chile, in the Middle East and in the United States. As a composer, Molina creates music that embraces a variety of genres, including piano pieces for young players, choral and chamber music, his fully orchestrated ballet, Chiloé, and opera, La Sargento de la Concepción. As a music director, he is currently Music Minister at Immaculate Conception Church in Mahwah, where he composes new music for the children and adult choirs. A strong advocate of the music of Chile and Spain, Molina is currently working on an album of piano music by composers from those countries, and is writing a piano concerto with Latin American influences. Molina received a master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music under the guidance of Marc Silverman, and is pursuing a PhD in composition under the guidance of Robert Aldridge and a DMA at the Mason Gross School of the Arts in Rutgers University under Min Kwon.

Enriqueta Somarriba performs as soloist and chamber musician in the United States and Europe, including in her native Spain. She has appeared in numerous venues, including Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Instituto Cervantes, Miller Auditorium, Ganz Hall, Kasteel d’Ursel and Auditorio Nacional de Música, among others. Somarriba has appeared as a soloist with the Andres Segovia Orchestra, Orchestra Forum Musikae and other orchestras in Spain. Her performances have been recorded for Spanish National Radio and WFMT radio in Chicago. She is a first prize winner in national and international competitions, including Pianos and Artists, Veguellina de Orbigo, Marisa Montiel and Jacinto Guerrero. She has received scholarships from Juventudes Musicales of Madrid, Mutua Madrileña and the Society of Spanish Artists and Performers (AIE). In 2010, she was named Best Young Pianist of the Year by the Miguel Angel Colmenero Foundation. Ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, Somarriba’s repertoire shows an affinity towards Spanish music, particularly that of Manuel de Falla, upon whose work she is dedicating extensive research. A versatile musician and advocate of new music, Somarriba’s has premiered works by living composers in the United States and Spain, including Voro Garcia, Robert Aldridge and Amanda Harberg. Somarriba studied with Solomon Mikowsky at the Chicago College of Performing Arts and Manhattan School of Music and, previously with Fernando Puchol at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid. She has also received guidance from Sergei Gavrilov, Gilbert Kalish, Martin Katz, among others, and attended and performed in festivals including EuroArts Festival in Lepizig and several international festivals in Spain. Somarriba is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Piano Performance at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts with Min Kwon, where she serves on the Faculty of the Extension Division.

Praised for his technically assured and poetically inspired playing, Jiayan Sun performs extensively in the North America, Europe and Asia. He has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, Fort Worth and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, Hallé Orchestra, Chinese National Symphony, RTÉ National Symphony and Toronto and Aspen Concert Orchestras. Sun has collaborated with prominent conductors, including Sir Mark Elder, Michail Jurowski and Leon Fleisher, and has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Severance Hall, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Dublin National Concert Hall, Leeds Town Hall, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall in Toronto, concert halls in Beijing and Taipei, and others. Sun performs frequently at The Juilliard School, and has participated in ChamberFest, Focus! Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, PianoTexas and Pianofest in the Hamptons. His performances have been broadcast on radio in the United States and abroad. Sun has received numerous prizes in international piano competitions, including Third Prize in the Leeds Competition, Second Prize in Dublin, Fourth Prize in Cleveland and First Prize in the inaugural CCC Toronto Competition. He was named a Sylff Fellow by The Tokyo Foundation and a Center for Musical Excellence Young Artist. In 2014, he performed a series of recitals commemorating the tri-centennial of C.P.E. Bach’s birth on clavichord, harpsichord and fortepiano. He has studied harpsichord with Lionel Party and fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson and Audrey Axinn. Born in China, Sun studied in the Central Conservatory in Beijing before moving to the United States to study at Juilliard’s Pre-college Division, where he received an Achievement Award. He subsequently received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Juilliard, where he continues studies under Stephen Hough, Richard Goode and Robert Levin.

Born in New Jersey in 1943, Paul Reale has created a catalogue of compositions large and diverse. It includes eleven Piano Sonatas, of which No.6 “The Waste Land” received a New Ariel Music Competition prize, and nine concertos for various instruments, including the Columbus Concerto for organ and winds (written for the 500th anniversary of the “discovery of America”). He has composed three piano concertos, two song cycles and other vocal and dramatic works. The score of Reale’s Two Madrigals was a Finalist in the 2009 Cincinnati Camerata Choral Composition Contest. Among his orchestral music, Caldera with Ice Cave reached the semi finals of the 2015 American Prize competition. His chamber music is also distinguished, and has been widely performed and recorded. Seven Deadly Sins for violin and piano was released in a series of recordings of his complete works for violin, in addition to Chopin’s Ghosts which features cello music [Naxos]. His Sacred Geometry 2 for violin and viola received a Special Mention at the 2005 International EPICMUSIC Composition Competition, and Simplexity for string quartet was a winner in the First Seattle Composers’ Alliance String Quartet Competition in 2014. As an author, he has written both aesthetic and analytical articles on 20th century topics, from Ives to Boulez, many of which were published with an accompanying CD. Reale began his education at Columbia College in English Literature and the hard sciences, and in 1967 received a degree in composition there under the primary tutelage of Otto Luening and Chou Wen-Chung, with whom he had studied privately for two years prior. A decision to enter college teaching prompted further study at the University of Pennsylvania, where he came under the influence of George Rochberg and George Crumb. The composer, also a dedicated educator, received the Charles and Harriet Luckman Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1995, and since 2004 is Professor Emeritus at UCLA.


The Center for Musical Excellence (CME) provides high-caliber training and individually tailored assistance to gifted young musicians – regardless of their age, background, and nationality – who wish to pursue their advanced education in the United States. In doing so, the CME ultimately aims to inspire, guide and mentor aspiring young artists toward a meaningful and successful career in music; one that enriches both the artist and the community through the gift of music.
[ www.cmemusic.org ] PAUL REALE (b. 1943)
DROWSEY MAGGIE for 2 pianos
Carl Patrick Bolleia & Jiayan Sun piano I & piano II

SERGE P for 2 pianos
Movement I
Entr’acte A
Movement II
Entr’acte B
Movement III
Enriqueta Somarriba & Patricio Molina piano I & II

WORLD OF A BENGAL CHILD for piano 4-hands
Movement I
Movement II
Jiayan Sun & Enriqueta Somarriba piano primo & piano secondo

CPE for 2 pianos
Movement I
Movement II
Movement III
Min Kwon & Jiayan Sun piano I & II

CHORALES II for 2 pianos
Carl Patrick Bolleia & Enriqueta Somarriba piano I & II

MINUET IN G WHIZ for 2 pianos
Min Kwon & Jiayan Sun piano I & II

LITTLE SCREAMERS for piano 4-hands
Patricio Molina & Carl Patrick Bolleia piano primo & piano secondo

WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT: FANFARE for 2 pianos, 8-hands
Min Kwon & Jiayan Sun piano I
Enriqueta Somarriba & Patricio Molina piano II
 



MSR Classics