Search - Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla, Ralph Votapek :: Granados: Goyescas; Falla: Pièces

A new release by pianist Ralph Votapek who skyrocketed to world prominence when he won the Gold Medal at the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1962. Since that time he has maintained a versatile and remarkable performance and recording career. Mr. Votapek has a special affinity for Spanish music. His performance of he most important piano suite in Spanish literature, Enrique Granados? Goyescas,is especially vibrant. His full bodied sonority sings with lyric simplicity. Although the Manuel de Falla Pièces espagnoles(Four Spanish Pieces) are among his earliest compositions, they represent a clearly defined personality with a highly polished technique to match. Composed at the same time as Albéniz?s Iberia,they represent Spanish nationalism at its height. Ralph Votapek was born in Milwaukee in 1939 and began his musical studies in Milwaukee?s Wisconsin Conservatory at the age of nine. He studied at Northwestern University with Guy Mombaerts, earning his Bachelor?s Degree, and subsequently attending both the Manhattan and the Juilliard School of Music. Although his principal teachers were Rosina Lhevinne and Robert Goldsand, he also studied with Nadia Reisenberg and Rudolf Serkin. In 1959, he won the Naumburg Award which offered him a New York debut at Town Hall. Equally at home in Chamber music, Mr. Votapek has performed with the Juilliard, Fine Arts, New World and Chester String Quartets. The PBS television network and other educational stations draw frequently on Mr. Votapek?s video series of over forty recitals broadcast throughout the U.S. Mr. Votapek has held the title of Artist-in-Residence at Michigan State University for over 30 years.