Matan Porat (piano)

After his sensational participation in last year’s International Pharos Chamber Music Festival in Kouklia, pianist Matan Porat returns to The Shoe Factory in Nicosia for a piano recital on 1 March 2013. Based on his upcoming debut CD, Variations on a theme by Scarlatti, the recital will represent a musical journey in over 20 works that are built around Scarlatti’s Sonata in D minor K32. This short sonata has a distinct ascending (and descending) half tone motif that captures the listener’s ear even upon first hearing. All the pieces in Porat’s programme use that motif in very different ways, creating a fascinating array of connections to the Scarlatti sonata and to the previous pieces in the program.

MATAN PORAT / piano

Matan Porat’s artistic activity encompasses a wide spectrum of work as a pianist and composer.

Matan Porat studied with Emanuel Krasovsky, Maria João Pires and Murray Perahia. He obtained his Master’s degree from the Juilliard School. Winner of the 2009 Prime Minister Award for composers, Porat studied composition with Ruben Seroussi and George Benjamin.

An avid chamber musician, Porat has participated in many distinguished festivals including the Marlboro, Ravinia, Verbier, Salzburg and Delft Festivals and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Other chamber appearances include performances with the Ysaÿe and Jerusalem Quartets, Dorothea Röschmann, Kim Kashkashian, Emmanuel Pahud and members of the Guarneri Quartet.

Porat has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with all major symphony and chamber orchestras in Israel. He has also performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Barbican in London, and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. His varied concert programme includes Bach’s Goldberg Variations and 6 Partitas, as well as the two monumental Ives sonatas. A passionate performer of contemporary music, Porat has premiered works by Matthias Pintscher, Philippe Schoeller and Gideon Lewensohn, among others. In the 2010/11 season, Porat toured with Peter Brook’s production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, in a version for piano solo and 7 singers.

Porat’s works have been commissioned by Maria João Pires, Kim Kashkashian, Elena Bashkirova and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, and the AICF’s Spring Competitions, with premieres at the Montpellier, Schleswig-Holstein and Menuhin Gstaad Festivals. David Orlowsky’s CD, featuring Porat’s Lux Aeterna, won the ECHO award in 2011; Porat’s piece Whaam!, recorded by David Greilsammer for Sony, was released in 2012. Among his performed pieces are an opera, Animal Farm; a Requiem; a mandolin concerto; and a musical theatre trilogy for an actor and ensemble based on stories by Kafka, Orwell and Thomas Mann.

Highlights of the 2012/13 season include performances at the Wigmore Hall in London and Kennedy Center in Washington, DC with Sharon and Ori Kam, two US tours with Musicians from Marlboro, and solo recitals in Paris, Verona, Japan and at La Roque d’Anthéron.

This season, Porat will record his debut CD Variations on a theme by Scarlatti, a 60-minute programme of pieces from Couperin to Boulez which relate to Scarlatti’s Sonata K. 32 - for the Mirare label.

PROGRAMME:
A musical journey built around Scarlatti’s Sonata in D minor K32. To include works by Couperin, Janáček, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Bartók, Brahms, Chopin, Schumann, Satie, Debussy, Bach, Shostakovich, Scriabin, Antheil, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Boulez, Mozart, Liszt, Ligeti, Kurtág, and Porat.

Tickets:
€20 Adults / €15 Members of the Foundation, Concessions
Box Office: Tel. 7000-9304 (daily 9.30-11.30am) / www.pharostickets.org