Captain Phil filling in for Scott with and interview with concert pianist
Jeni Slotchiver https://www.jenislotchiver.com/ talking about her new album American Heritage
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American Heritage
From the Civil War to Civil Rights

Following the success of the Busoni The Visionary series, Jeni is humbled to introduce something so intimately close to home. With Southern roots of her own, Ms. Slotchiver’s debut ZOHO CD release American Heritage presents compositions that honor the vast African-American musical tradition as well as Union army hymns from the Civil War. There are contemporary arrangements and harmonizations of sea shanties, songs of enslaved people, and secular dances, plus arrangements of spirituals. Several compositions recall the strong, Southern voices of gospel and blues, and of the eight composers represented, six are of African descent and two of these are women.

Jeni Slotchiver earned the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance at Indiana University, before continuing her studies in New York City with Maestros German Diez, the legendary Cuban pianist, student and later teaching assistant of Claudio Arrau; and Joseph Bloch, Professor Emeritus, The Julliard School. Honored with performance grants from The Smithsonian Institute and the New York Public Libraries, Ms. Slotchiver gave her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall as the first prize winner of the Artists International Young Musicians Auditions.

A champion of twentieth century composers, Jeni Slotchiver is dedicated to the presentation of new and rarely heard music, and has given the world premieres of many works in major New York City recitals. Anthony Tommasini, in an article published in The New York Times on the eve of the millennium, selected Ms. Slotchiver’s debut CD, Busoni The Visionary, as a Critics Choice: Appropriate For Millennial Reflection. David Hurwitz, in Classics Today, wrote, “Her wide range of keyboard color and sense of mystery are quite simply mesmerizing… Positively physical.” Ms. Slotchiver participated in two international Busoni Symposiums, and she presented a historic all-Busoni performance at Merkin Concert Hall, the first of its kind in New York City in thirty years. Her three CD series, Busoni The Visionary, received worldwide critical acclaim. “No one plays Busoni’s piano music with greater clarity or depth of understanding than Jeni Slotchiver. As she demonstrated in Volume I of this series, this is music she clearly loves and understands both intellectually and intuitively. There is no finer, or more committed, advocate for this greatly underrated composer working today.” — Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza/21, NYC.

Jeni Slotchiver has performed as recitalist and concerto soloist across the world, from Manhattan’s Lincoln Center to the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia. American radio and broadcast appearances include, NPR’s Performance Today, WNYC’s The Fishko Files, WPLN’s Live in Studio C, WKCR’s Live Constructions, and WQXR’s Reflections from the Keyboard with David Dubal. Profiles of Jeni have appeared in, The Los Angeles Times, Piano Magazine, CDNOW, SEQUENZA/21, Mundoclasico, Time Out NY, Café Momus (Budapest), and PЖ (Moscow). Her articles and essays are published in many languages, and featured in prominent music periodicals, including Musical Opinion Quarterly, International Piano and Piano.

Following the success of the Busoni The Visionary series, Jeni is humbled to introduce something so intimately close to home. With Southern roots of her own, Ms. Slotchiver’s debut ZOHO CD release, American Heritage, is her homage to the legendary composers preserving American folk music and creating anew. What was once familiar, is reborn.