DALIT HADASS WARSHAW: PIANO PERFORMANCE BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1974, Warshaw began her piano studies at age three with her mother, Ruti Hadass Warshaw. A significant early mentor was the legendary pianist and teacher Nadia Reisenberg, who was also instrumental in encouraging Warshaw’s early compositional endeavors.
She began composing one year later, writing her first orchestral work at age 8, for which she became the youngest winner of the BMI Award. In 1985, Zubin Mehta conducted her second orchestral work, In the Beginning, with both the New York and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras. She continued to study piano with Ruti Warshaw until the age of seventeen, also receiving piano lessons from Richard Goode, Martin Canin and Yocheved Kaplinsky. She went on to receive degrees from Columbia University and the Juilliard School, where she obtained her doctorate in music composition in May 2003.
Warshaw with Piano Teacher Nadia Reisenberg
As a pianist, Warshaw has performed widely as both soloist and chamber player, in venues as diverse as Avery Fisher Hall, Miller Theater, Alice Tully Hall and the Stone, her repertoire ranging from the piano concerti of Mozart, Schumann and Grieg to her own compositions and improvisations. She appeared as soloist in the premiere of Conjuring Tristan, her “narrative concerto for piano and orchestra,” with the Grand Rapids Symphony in 2015, described by the Grand Rapids Press as “a graceful and sensitive pianist [and] an intriguing orchestrator who draws a wealth of colors from an ensemble.” She has also soloed with the Rockland Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony and the Misgav Chamber Players, under the direction of Lukas Foss, and has performed numerous chamber recitals with artists including acclaimed cellist Wendy Warner, soprano Nancy Allen Lundy, and mezzo-soprano Re’ut Ben Ze’ev.
Warshaw’s CD, Invocations, was released in January 2011 and is available on Albany Records. This recording allowed her to feature and reconcile diverse aspects of her musical identity — composer, pianist, and thereminist.
Warshaw continues to cultivate a multi-faceted persona as composer, performer and educator. Upcoming piano performances of her own works include the premiere of Different Loves: A Cycle of Classical Portraits (February 28, 2021 at the National Opera Center), and The Letters of Mademoiselle C., a monodrama based upon the life and letters of Camille Claudel, featuring soprano Nancy Allen Lundy (as part of the Cutting Edge Concert Series at Symphony Space).
SELECTED PIANO PERFORMANCES:
Germaine Tailleferre (1892 – 1983): “Impromptu” (1909, written at age 17)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C3uGE6pfLM
“Gabriele’s Cadenza” from Conjuring Tristan for piano and orchestra (2015)
Conjuring Tristan, a “narrative concerto for piano and orchestra,” is based upon Thomas Mann’s novella “Tristan,” in which Mann’s familiar theme of the irreconcilable dichotomy between Life and Art is revisited through the character of Gabriele, a young mother and former pianist in treatment for consumption at the sanatorium of Einfried. A writer and fellow resident named Spinell reignites her artistic spirit and encourages her to play through Wagner’s opera “Tristan und Isolde,” a transformative “wonder-realm” of experience for both. After a confrontation between writer and husband, Kloterjahn, Gabriele dies. The piece incorporates heavily the leitmotifs of Wagner (notably in the cadenza, as the piano/protagonist plays a fantasy on the themes of Tristan und Isolde, corresponding to the climactic moment in Mann’s story).
Encounters for solo piano (2015) by Dalit Warshaw