Curator and MacPhail piano faculty Miryana Moteva sat down with us to answer questions about her story, the music, and more.
Miryana, tell us a little bit about your background and how you got involved in music in the first place.
Miryana: I’m originally from Bulgaria, a small country in Eastern Europe, rich in musical and cultural traditions. My mom used to play piano, so I grew up in a ‘musical’ house, that valued arts and classical music. As I showed apparent interest in the piano from an early age, my parents enrolled me at the National School of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, where I studied piano, ear training, music history, theory, harmony, chamber music and accompaniment. When I graduated from the National School of Music, as well as from the American College of Sofia, I moved to the US to pursue my musical studies further.
I attended Lawrence University in Wisconsin, where I studied with renowned concert pianist Emma Tahmizian. Later, I completed my Master’s in Piano Performance at Univeristy of Minnesota under the tutelage of Lydia Artymiw and I’m currently finishing my Doctorate in Collaborative Piano with Timothy Lovelace.
Tell me a little bit about your role at MacPhail.
Miryana: At MacPhail, I’m a piano teaching artist, so I teach piano, and a full-time staff collaborative pianist. I accompany most of the student recitals and perform regularly on many of the faculty recitals. I’m very active as a performer outside of MacPhail, as well. I perform both as a soloist in recitals and concerts with various orchestras, and as a chamber musician. I work very closely with a group of Minnesota Orchestra musicians with whom we regularly present chamber music concerts in the Twin Cities, nationally and internationally. In the last several years, I have dedicated a significant portion of my career to discovering, working with and performing the music of promising living composers. I believe that as a pianist and a musician, it is my duty to perform works by talented young composers, thus giving them a chance to make their heard and to pave their way into the classical music canon.
What is there about music that inspires you to spend your whole life playing and creating?
Miryana:
First comes the art of music: the fascinating world of sound, the ability to create an entire universe, to fill with characters, and to share it with the people using the 88 keys of the piano. Through a more holistic perspective, music is a universal language that connects us regardless of our social and cultural differences. It unifies in a world that is very divided, in a world where war and separation seem to be inevitable. Music is an artistic medium based on sound, which is maybe the most fleeting of all the arts. Thus, it teaches us to truly live in the moment, to cherish every second of it, and to be present – something that is so difficult nowadays with the rise of the internet and social media. Music can evoke an entire spectrum of human emotion, and in this way, it centers us around what it means to be human with a capital H.
It tells stories that can take us to different lands and acquaints us with different cultures. It can connect us to parts of the world that some of us never imagined we would reach. And it opens our minds and ears to what we already share as a human race, but also to what we can learn from each other. Sometimes there are subjects that seem uninteresting to us unless they’re brought to us through an art form, a painting or the sound of music. So that’s what I love about music, that’s what inspires me.
Tell me about your concept of the concertMiryana: The concert explores the themes of mysticism, rituals, legends, and traditions in different cultures as portrayed in the music of talented young composers from relatively underrepresented musical communities: Marc Migo from Catalonia,Spain, Lora Al-Ahmad from Bulgaria/Jordan, and Ivan Rodriguez from Puerto Rico. If you look at the larger classical music canon, these communities are not as well represented as Western Europe, for example, or Northern America. So, while this concert introduces us to the imagination of three exceptionally talented composers, it also exposes us to musical traditions from different parts of the world. Each piece on the program explores in a unique way ‘the journey from darkness to light’, celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and fills us with hope that good will also reign over evil.
How does the music establish the theme of the resilience of the human spirit and the celebration of good over evil?
Miryana:
The three composers achieve that in very different ways employing a wide array of musical techniques: the use of light motifs, changing harmonic language, tempos, instrumentation, registers, musical texture, and character.
For example, in the last movement of Al-Ahmad’s trio one can hear the character of the King Snake through fast repeated notes and clusters in the lowest register of the piano, while bright, jubilant chords and fast ‘sparkly’ scales in the higher register of the piano represent the defeat of the evil spirit.
In Danza Nocturno, Rodriguez juxtaposes slow, melancholic, rather sparse in instrumental texture moments with celebratory, highly consonant, full of movement passages to represent transitions from dark historical moments to light, hopeful ones in the cultural history of his native Puerto Rico.
Migo, on the other hand, depicts the contrasting characters of the ‘gemstones’ through his creative treatment of harmony, tempo changes, and various combinations of instrumentation.
To hear how this all plays out in the actual pieces, come hear the concert!
How does it create a space for multicultural dialogue and human experience?
Miryana:
Listening to four completely different trios in one program will take the audience on a journey around the world: it will ‘transport’ them to places they might have never visited and will expose them to music they might have never heard. Yet, since music is a universal language, the listeners do not need to prepare for that journey – all they need to do is open their hearts and ears for an immersion in a multicultural sonic experience.
I hope that by the end of the concert, having caught glimpses of various cultures, they will find themselves a little more connected to the world as a whole. I also hope that in each composition, they’ll hear something they recognize, something they enjoy, or something they can connect to on a personal level, whether it be the message of the music or character of the piece.
“I hope that the audience will be touched, inspired and even transformed through their concert experience, both by the extraordinary repertoire performed and by the highest level of performance we are aiming to deliver…”
Miryana Moteva, Curator & MacPhail piano faculty
What do you want the audience members to take away from the concert?
Miryana:
I hope that the audience members will leave the concert with ears and hearts open to new classical music: music composed in the 21st century, yet music of such high intrinsic and artistic value that it will leave a significant mark in the classical music canon. I hope that long after the concert is over, the audience will continue searching for and listening to new works, and will keep finding beauty, hope and important social and cultural messages in the music of young talents, such as the three artists represented on the program.
I hope that the audience will be touched, inspired and even transformed through their concert experience, both by the extraordinary repertoire performed and by the highest level of performance we are aiming to deliver. I aspire that they will be filled with faith in the power of the music and with hope that through art, we can transcend the dark sides of humanity.
Last but not least, I hope that the audience members will feel closer to each other and more unified through the shared experience of taking the ‘journey’ from darkness to light. Regardless of where they came from before they entered the concert hall, I hope that they‘ll find themselves more connected as human beings through the powerful, universal language of music.
A note:
Because I have lived on two continents and in multiple countries, where I’ve experienced profoundly different cultures, I see the value of being open-minded to appreciate the art and music of various traditions. That is partly why it was important for me to create a program that celebrates diversity. There’s incredible value in the fact that the composers represented in the concert come from very different places and bring their own diverse cultural and social experiences into the music you’re going to hear. They prove that our differences do not have to separate us – just on the contrary, we can all find a shared thread of humanity even in the most seemingly distant experiences.
It is an absolute honor to be joined in this project by musicians and colleagues of the highest artistic caliber: Irina Elkina, a celebrated concert pianist and pedagogue from Russia; Nina Olsen, an accomplished clarinetist, who, in addition to teaching at MacPhail, performs with Minnesota Opera; violinist David Brubaker and cellist Sonia Mantell, both valued members of the Minnesota Orchestra and avid solo and chamber musicians.
Get your ticket to Mysticism, Legends, and Traditions: From Darkness to Light here…
Miryana Moteva has recently appeared as a soloist with Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Sergei Prokofiev and in chamber recitals at Sundin Music Hall, the Basilica of Saint Mary, the Fitzgerald Theater, the Schubert Club, the Baroque Room, University of Wisconsin-River Falls and the Cowles Center for Performing Arts in collaboration with Curio Dance. She performs regularly on MacPhail Center for Music’s Spotlight Concert Series, the University of Minnesota’s Balkanicus New Music Series and the Schubert Club’s Courtroom Concerts. Her performances have been featured on Classical MPR.
Miryana has appeared at festivals such as March Music Days and Music and Earth International Festivals in Bulgaria, and San Daniele International Piano Meeting in Italy. Currently, she is on the faculty of MacPhail Center for Music as a piano teaching artist and a staff pianist. Previously, she has served as a Collaborative and Applied Piano Teaching Assistant at University of Minnesota, and as an Accompanying Fellow at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
Learn more about Miryana Moteva and the concert performers here…
