Arts & Leisure
The first Elizabeth Dunaway Burnham Memorial Piano Festival
OGUNQUIT - Ogunquit Performing Arts will memorialize Elizabeth Dunaway Burnham, a longtime member of OPA who is remembered as a fine pianist in her own right, with its first piano festival named in her honor.Burnham was the daughter of S. Judson Dunaway, the benefactor of the Dunaway Center. The center will host the first festival in her name, which will be held April 19 through 22.
Burnham was a member of OPA when the group arranged for the acquisition of its beloved Steinway C Concert Grand piano, according to information provided by OPA.
A performer and teacher of piano, she always envisioned some sort of piano competition or festival of piano for Ogunquit.
This year, with the advent of what is hoped to be the first of the annual Elizabeth Dunaway Burnham Piano Festival, that dream becomes a reality.
Leading off the festival on April 19 at 8 p.m. will be the fascinating team of Leslie Amper and Randall Hodgkinson playing an exciting program of music for four hands.
On the next evening, April 20, at 8 p.m., the audience will have the opportunity - and rare treat - to hear Martin Perry perform on a Beethoven-replica fortepiano. This instrument was developed after the harpsichord and preceded the piano as it is now known.
And on April 21, at the same time and place, virtuosic Russian pianist Irina Nuzova will perform her piano magic on Ogunquit Performing Arts' legendary Steinway piano.
The culminating event of the festival will be an afternoon of recitals on April 22 at 3 p.m. at the Dunaway Center by the next generation of piano masters, who are currently local students of piano.
"To say that the performing artists on tap for the first three nights of the festival are outstanding would be an understatement given their training and the prizes that they have won internationally," Stuart Nudelman of OPA noted in an announcement of the upcoming event.
Amper, for example, presented the music of Scriabin on stage for Peter Sellars' American National Theater production of "A Seagull." Her recording of Andrew Imbrie's "Short Story" was selected for the WGBH Art of the United States, an international radio broadcast.
Randall Hodgkinson was the grand prize winner of the International American Music Competition, sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation. Hodgkinson has performed with orchestras in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Boston and Cleveland, and abroad in Italy and Iceland.
Perry, graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York, was part of the piano team, Lewis and Perry, which won the Dranoff International Two Piano Competition, presenting their New York debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
Nuzova, according to the Italian newspaper "La Nazione" of Florence, "distinguishes herself for her intensity of feeling" and according to the "Washington Post," she "rises above mere virtuosity in her thoughtful rendition of the classical repertoire." Nuzova has won top prizes as piano soloist and chamber ensemble pianist in international competitions such as the Vincenzo Bellini and Citta de Senigallia in Italy and the coveted Bruce Hungerford Award at the Young Concert Artist auditions in New York.
For more information about the festival, contact OPA 646-6170.
