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TORONTO, ONTARIO – American pianist Grace Nikae ("nee-kah-eh", as in "egg") is a
tour-de-force and a brilliant communicator. With accolades such
as "…expansively heartfelt…a musician able to summon a wonderful
modicum of harmonic tension, musical lyricism, and architectural
coherence" (New York Concert Review, Carnegie Hall
debut); "Five out of five stars…piano playing of the highest
standard!" (Music OMH, Wigmore Hall debut) and "A clear
demonstration of her virtuosity and powers of persuasion," (Pianowereld
Magazine, Concertgebouw debut) there’s no doubt continued
success will be hers. With a powerhouse technique, passionate
virtuosity, a strong desire to reach all music lovers, and an
elegant presence on-camera, she is on her way to leaving her
mark as not only a classical pianist but as a musical ambassador
as well. She performed at the Canadian launch of her next
recording "Chopin | Schumann: Sonatas" on Thursday, August 6
at Atelier Rosemarie Umetsu .
The media and special guests were invited to enjoy a glass of wine, listen to Grace play, and meet
her afterwards.
It’s been a decade since her last visit to Toronto. Grace Nikae
was a student at a chamber music festival, and fondly remembers
working with esteemed musicians such as the great piano
pedagogue Ronald Turini, and members of the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra. Grace looks forward to returning as part of her
North American tour to promote her second CD, "Chopin |
Schumann: Sonatas". Her début recording, "Fantasies" (Tempora
Records) was a collection of works by several composers, ideal
for Ms. Nikae to reveal her wide range as an artist. With her
second offing on the same label, she is going in a different
direction, to reflect her maturity as a musician, with
repertoire that reflects her experience in life, and as an
artist. Why Chopin and Schumann? "I learned a lot of Chopin as
a student, but wanted to explore other composers in recitals.
An audience member who’d followed my career for a few years
asked me if I had an aversion to Chopin as I’d never programmed
his repertoire. And at the time, I was learning the Schumann
sonata. Then I started thinking about the connection between
the two." Grace continues, "I was performing the Schumann
sonata, and thought about his music – the restlessness, duality,
a yearning for some deeper illumination - an almost psychopathic
emotional turmoil and struggle. Then I remembered Chopin’s
third sonata, which I first learned at sixteen. Suddenly they
seemed connected – Schumann’s darkness and beauty (especially in
the second movement)…you react immediately to it. Whereas with
the Chopin, the enigma and mystery is hidden – the restlessness
and dark sense of loss is contained with the inner pulse of the
work. It’s like the two sides of the same coin." A portion of
the proceeds from this recording will go towards UNICEF Spain,
an organization with which Grace just began a collaboration.
Also, several tracks from the recording will also be available
for purchase directly from UNICEF Spain's website, www.unicef.es,
with all revenues directly benefiting the organisation's variety
of projects on behalf of children worldwide.
Grace Nikae exemplifies the contemporary attitude required in
the new generation of young artists: she is either practicing,
performing, recording, emailing her manager, blogging,
MySpace-ing, Facebooking, Tweeting, or updating her website,
www.gracenikae.com. She has a strong interest in attracting as
many people of all ages to classical music and will explore any
means of doing so. Of her strong online presence, Grace
explains, "I use social media to provide an easy way to connect
with me and my music. Hopefully I bring new audiences to
classical music. The whole point from the beginning was through
my online efforts, someone who may not attend a classical music
concert will be less intimidated and will check it out. I also
like a cool, intimate, ‘non-threatening’ venue to play in, and
yet still have audiences still enjoy a culturally and
educationally rich atmosphere."
Another big part of Ms. Nikae’s life as a musician is her
humanitarian work. She works with international organizations to
use western classical music to teach and reach out to
impoverished regions – she recently returned from an amazing
artistic outreach mission in India and Nepal that was life
altering. Also, she performs one or two benefit concerts a year
that help various major charities such as Save the Children or
World Wildlife Fund. Grace is also the co-founder and artistic
director of The Renaissance Academy in Hawaii (her home state),
a non-profit educational organization dedicated to providing
academic and artistic enrichment, and to expanding the
educational and cultural possibilities of the Hawaii community.
Formed in 1999, Grace designed the curriculum and all students
can apply for an annual scholarship in her name. These
humanitarian activities are a huge part of her artistic
philosophy.
Grace Nikae likes to mix it up: from Bach to Ligeti or from
Mozart to Carter, her variety of bold projects continue
exploring our connection with music, and she is committed to
constant evolution and development of her art. Her teachers
included Martin Canin of The Juilliard School and the legendary
Alexander Slobodyanik. Reflecting her multi-dimensional and
interdisciplinary approach, she sought out a traditional liberal
arts education and pursued her undergraduate degree in European
history at Columbia University.
She is now based in Madrid, Spain.
For more information, please visit www.gracenikae.com.
Special thanks to wine sponsor Scott Wilson of Terzetto Wine and
fashion designer Rosemarie Umetsu for outfitting Ms. Nikae.
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