By Fredric Dannen
People who don’t like, or, shall we say, don’t “get,” classical music often take the view that admirers of the genre are fetishizing the past. Part of the problem is the fusty term “classical music,” which lovers of the form, from Leonard Bernstein to Alex Ross, have tried to change, without success. For now we’re stuck with it. But the term matters less than the question raised by the antagonists: Is this music still relevant?
No one who attends a concert by internationally known, New York-based, pianist Nicole Brancato will ever ask that question. Described as “brilliant” and an “immense talent” (New York magazine and Connect Savannah), Brancato has taken her original music-making from the Guggenheim Museum and Rai Italia (Italy’s national TV network) to the Banff Centre and underground performances in Brooklyn factories and warehouses. A virtuoso classical pianist by training, Brancato gives concerts more aptly described as immersive multimedia events that include cinema, poetry and the visual arts, along with a redefining of the very notion of classical music.
In the crowded field of conservatory graduates (Manhattan School of Music in Brancato’s case), Nicole stands out for reimagining the role of the concert pianist. A New York Times music critic equated one of her performances to “a beam of light bouncing off the walls of the theater.” Consider, for instance, The Illustrated Pianist, an event Brancato developed, curated and performed last year in San Francisco to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man. The multimedia concert combined science fiction with 22 new piano works, visual installations, and a cohort of marquee-name composers and classical pianists. A touring production at the Plaxall Gallery, in Long Island City, earned a thumbs-up recommendation in The New Yorker.
Brancato learned about San Miguel and its cultured concertgoers from a recent new resident, the jazz pianist Joel Pierson. She will be giving a single concert at Bellas Artes on Friday, September 2, at 7pm, as a Steinway Series benefit for Libros para Todos, the nonprofit reading initiative for children from low-income Mexican families.
Brancato’s multimedia concert is called Harmony of the Spheres. Inspired by the question “What is our place in this universe?” Nicole speaks and performs in this intimate solo program, connecting artist Salvador Dalí, poet Federico García Lorca, and composer George Crumb. Featuring a French surrealist film by Germaine Dulac and poems by Lorca, the experience includes music by Henry Cowell, Dane Rudhyar, Mary Prescott, Luciano Berio, Greg Hammontree, and Nicole herself.
Nothing quite like Harmony of the Spheres has ever been presented in San Miguel.
Reserved-seat tickets are 400, 300 and 200 pesos, and can be purchased online at boletocity.com or at the Boleto City ticket office on the ground floor of Mercado Sano, Ancha de San Antonio 123, Monday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm.
