Department of Music

• Saturday, September 18, 2010
• Old Cabell Hall Auditorium
• 8:00 p.m.
• General Fee $15, Student Fee $5, but free for U.Va. students if reserved in advance

Born in Venice, Italy, pianist, writer, and poet Roberto Poli enjoys a career that spans the globe. Despite a repertoire that covers four and a half centuries of keyboard literature, he is becoming known for his specialization in the music of Frederic Chopin, which he has studied in manuscripts and early editions. In celebration of the composer’s 200th birthday this year, the center of his current interest is the recording on video of Chopin’s complete works. The first DVD, The Late Works of Frederic Chopin, was released in 2008 on the Rebus label and features live performances of Opp. 58-62. A parallel project, supported by the European label Onclassical, features his audio recordings of Chopin’s complete works, three volumes of which have already been released (a fourth volume is scheduled for release in December 2010). His Chopin project also includes the publication of his first book, The Secret Life of Musical Notation: defying interpretive traditions (Amadeus Press, 2010), which offers new insights into the composer’s music. Featuring discoveries based on his analysis of Chopin’s manuscripts and early editions, this volume on pianistic interpretation provides a new vision of his works that is both scholarly and practical. Additionally, Mr. Poli is the founder and Artistic Director of The Chopin Symposium, a yearly event that gathers world-renowned guest performers, pedagogues and lecturers.

Heard as a soloist on both piano and harpsichord, and as a chamber musician and conductor, Roberto Poli has appeared with the Monet Ensemble, the Trio di Venezia, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, soprano Elizabeth Keusch, clarinetist Jonathan Cohler, violinists Piotr Buczek and Joanna Kurkovicz, and cellists Sarah Carter and Ronald Lowry. More recently, he has appeared in extensive and critically acclaimed tours of South Korea and the United States with world-renowned cellist Daniel Lee.

Roberto Poli holds positions at the Rivers School Conservatory in Weston, Massachusetts, where he is Artist in Residence and Chair of the Piano Department, and at the New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, where he teaches a select group of talented pupils.

This event is part of the Chopin Bicentennial Celebration at the University of Virginia (September 16-19, 2010), which is sponsored by the Page-Barbour Fund, the Mcintire Department of Music, the Center for Russian and East European Studies, the American Institute of Polish Culture, the Chopin Foundation of the United States, the Slavic Literatures and Languages Department, the Media Studies Department, and by an Arts Enhancement Grant from the Vice Provost for the Arts to increase access and engagement with the Arts. For a listing of all festival events please visit: http://www.virginia.edu/music/chopin.