Search - the Mirecourt Trio, Walter Ponce (piano), Paul Reale (piano) :: Paul Reale: Concerto 'Dies Irae' for Piano Trio & Wind Ensemble; Piano Sonata No.7; Piano Sonata No.8 [World Premiere Recordings]

Paul Reale has created a catalogue of compositions large and diverse. It includes eleven piano sonatas, of which Sonata No.6 The Waste Land received a New Ariel Music Competition prize, three piano concertos and nine concertos for various instruments, including the Columbus Concerto for organ and winds, which was composed for the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America. Reale has also written two song cycles and several other vocal and dramatic works. His vocal piece Two Madrigals was a finalist in the 2009 Cincinnati Camerata Choral Composition Contest. Among Reale's orchestral music, Caldera with Ice Cave reached the semi-finals of the 2015 American Prize competition. His chamber music is also distinguished, and has been widely performed and recorded. Seven Deadly Sins for violin and piano was released in a series of recordings of his complete works for violin, in addition to Chopin's Ghosts, which features music for cello [Naxos]. In 2017, Le Bonheur de Vivre, a clarinet trio, was chosen by the Pierrot Ensemble (all firstchair players of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra) to be included in Volume 1 of their Ablaze series. His Sacred Geometry 2 for violin and viola received a Special Mention at the 2005 International EPICMUSIC Composition Competition, and Simplexity for string quartet was a winner in the First Seattle Composers' Alliance String Quartet Competition in 2014. Reale's music over the course of his career has retained a distinctly fresh, original voice. On the one hand, his compositional language is as identifiable as Chopin, yet it is impossible to pigeonhole him into a convenient cliché. His vast output continues to fascinate and draw listeners to return to his music again and again. Reale began his education at Columbia College studying English literature and the hard sciences, and in 1967 received a degree in composition under the primary tutelage of Otto Luening and Chou Wen-Chung, with whom he had studied privately for two years prior. A decision to enter the teaching profession prompted further study at the University of Pennsylvania, where he came under the influence of George Rochberg and George Crumb. Reale received the Charles and Harriet Luckman Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1995, and since 2004 is Professor Emeritus at the University of California Los Angeles. As described by Walter Simmons in Fanfare magazine, The Mirecourt Trio has been characterized by a dedication to the highest standards of performance, to unearthing lesserknown works, and to increasing the piano trio repertoire by inviting important composers to investigate the medium. This dedication pursued aggressively and discriminatingly has made them [one of] today's preeminent piano trios. Since its inception in 1973, the trio has commissioned and premiered more than 100 works in their 20-year career. Violinist Kenneth Goldsmith is today Professor of Violin at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Cellist Terry King teaches at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and the Hartt School, University of Hartford and is co-director of LyricaFest, a bi-annual chamber music festival. Pianist John Jensen is a staff pianist at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, a position he has held for 14 years. Walter Ponce has performed extensively in North and South America, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. Ponce, who for many years was under the same management as Martha Argerich, Alicia de Larrocha and Maurizio Pollini, has performed under the baton of noted conductors, including Sir Georg Solti, with whom he made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut. At the invitation of Daniel Barenboim, he was featured in Chicago's prestigious Orchestra Hall Piano series. In New York, Ponce gave his solo recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Introductions series to critical acclaim.