Guest Artist Recital: Dr. Ronaldo Rolim, piano

Friday, March 28, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Allendale Campus
Alumni, Community, Faculty, Staff, Students

With "a special ability to present touching interpretations" (El Norte), Brazilian pianist Ronaldo Rolim has performed extensively over four continents, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Zurich's Tonhalle, London's Wigmore Hall, the Great Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts. Acclaimed for his "consummate elegance" (New York Concert Review) and "mastery of phrasing and dynamics" (Oberbaselbieter Zeitung), he has captured top prizes at numerous prestigious international competitions, including Géza Anda, James Mottram, Bösendorfer, San Marino, Lyon, and Teresa Carreño. Mr. Rolim's latest album on Odradek Records,/Szymanowski - The Wartime Triptychs, devoted to the programmatic works the Polish composer wrote during World War I, prompted/Diapason/magazine to consider him "an ideal guide to [Szymanowski's] magic world" and Classica/magazine to hail his "clear but thunderous pianism".

Recent and upcoming guest soloist performances include Ravel's G major Concerto and Falla's Noches en los Jardines de España with the Minas Gerais Philharmonic, Liszt's Concerto No.2 with Symphony Tacoma, Rachmaninoff's Concerto No.4 with the Porto Alegre Symphony, and Beethoven's Concerto No. 5 with the Louisiana Philharmonic and on a tour of Germany with Ukraine's Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra. Other recent engagements include performances at the Septembre Musical Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, chamber music with members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, a tour of Poland with violinist Emanuel Salvador, a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Enrique Granados with performances of the composer's complete/Goyescas/in venues in the U.S., Europe, and Brazil, and an appearance in Bernstein's/Age of Anxiety/in the Bernstein Centenary Festival hosted by the Minas Gerais Philharmonic. The 2024-25 season will see him on tour throughout the United States, Europe and Brazil in solo and chamber music recitals.

Mr. Rolim has performed with ensembles such as the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Concerto Budapest, Phoenix Symphony, European Philharmonic Orchestra of Switzerland, Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as many of Brazil's foremost ensembles. A frequent presence at international music festivals, he has been featured in solo recitals and chamber music performances at Ravinia, Rio Folle Journée, Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Musikdorf Ernen, Académie Musicale de Villecroze, and the Kingston, Walla Walla and Crescent City Chamber Music Festivals. Broadcasts of his live performances have been featured in radio stations in Brazil (Radios MEC and Cultura), the U.S. (WQXR New York, WRTI Philadelphia, WFMT Chicago, Classical KING Seattle and WBJC Baltimore), and Europe (Radios SWR 2, BBC 3, Rai 3, and France Musique). He has also been featured in several television programs in his home country, including Brasil Piano Solo, a series of recitals dedicated exclusively to Brazilian music, presented by the TV Cultura Channel. He has also participated in the documentary/Magda Tagliaferro: A World Inside The Piano, in which he performed music of Scriabin.

A passionate advocate of chamber music, Mr. Rolim is the newest member of the Puget Sound Piano Trio, which for 35 years has developed extensive concert activity in the United States while being strongly committed to community engagement and educational endeavors. He was a founding member of Trio Appassionata, which during 15 years of activities cultivated multiple projects such as tours of the U.S., Europe, Brazil and China, and the release of the album/gone into night are all the eyes, dedicated to piano trios by American composers. Mr. Rolim regularly performs in duo with his wife, pianist Xiaohui Yang, and collaborates with ensembles such as the Aizuri, Jasper, Guimarães and São Paulo string quartets. He has performed with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Brazilian Symphony, Ensemble Connect, and Bronx Arts Ensemble.

Ronaldo Rolim began musical studies with his mother, Miriam Pregnolato, and gave his first public performance at the age of four. He holds degrees from the Magda Tagliaferro School in São Paulo, the Peabody Institute in Baltimore and the Yale School of Music in New Haven. Mr. Rolim resides in Tacoma, WA, where he is Assistant Professor of Piano and Director of Keyboard Studies at the University of Puget Sound.

Program
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata in E-flat major, Op.21 No.1, "Quasi una fantasia"
Andante - Allegro
Allegro molto e vivace
Adagio con espressione - Allegro vivace

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Ciclo Brasileiro (selections):
Impressões Seresteiras
Festa no Sertão

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat major, Op.61

Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021)
Dreadful Memories (from North-American Ballads)
Hannah Kendall (b. 1984)
Processional
(both selections to be performed without pause)

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
Fantasia Baetica

Location Information

Sherman van Solkema Recital Hall

Download parking map for the Allendale Campus

Contact Information

Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance
(616) 331-3484

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This event was added to the calendar by Bridgett Vanderhoof (vandebri@gvsu.edu) on Monday, August 26, 2024 at 11:56 a.m.

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