Rising-star pianist in free ‘Discovery Concert’

Russian-born Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg will make his Kansas City debut in a free Harriman-Jewell Series “Discovery Concert” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Folly Theater downtown.

The 25-year-old Jewish musician, named by BBC Music Magazine as one of “tomorrow’s greats: the pianists to watch,” will perform works by Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev. Giltburg will return to the stage immediately after the concert for a conversation with audience members.

Born in Moscow into a family of musicians, Giltburg began his piano studies with his mother at the age of 5.

Giltburg said his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were all piano teachers.

“My mother and grandmother still are,” Giltburg said in a telephone interview this week from Chicago, where he was performing. “The entire family moved to Israel, and my grandmother is still performing, accompanying singers.”

Even so, Giltburg said, it was not his destiny to become a pianist.

“I had to convince Mom to teach me,” Giltburg said. “She was very reluctant. She felt we had enough pianists in the family, and I had better do something else. And also because the life of a pianist is not always easy, I might be better off. But I was very insistent, and in the end she started teaching me.”

Giltburg still studies in Tel Aviv with Arie Vardi.

And while Giltburg has concentrated his studies on classical music (“I cannot play anything else.”), he likes to listen to other forms, too, including American jazz of the 1930s and ’40s.

Asked about his sub-specialty within classical music, Giltburg said he is “trying not to specialize.”

“I am trying to play as many different styles as I can and trying to build varied and interesting programs, usually going from Baroque until the 20th century,” he said. “My two main groups of composers are the Germans and the Russians, and within those groups there is such variety. But also outside those groups there are many composers whom I like.”

Growing reputation
Giltburg’s reputation is burgeoning within the classical-music world. In the past few months, he has made his solo debut at such important venues as the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and performed with such groups as the London Philharmonia. He has performed with such other European groups as England’s Bournemouth Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Czech Republic’s Prague Symphony.

He has won prizes at numerous international competitions, notably at Santander, Spain, where in 2002 he took the top prize and the Sony Audience Prize for his interpretation of Bartók’s Concerto No. 3 with the London Symphony Orchestra.

As a result of an audition with Zubin Mehta, Giltburg made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic in February 2005 and has since returned to the orchestra twice, notably in December 2005 to play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Christoph von Dohnanyi. He is a regular guest of the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Chamber Orchestra, with whom, as a teenager, he toured the United States. He has toured South America four times to rave reviews, and made his North American orchestra debut in 2007 with the Indianapolis Symphony.

In addition to Kansas City, Mo., his current solo-recital tour takes him from Memphis, Tenn., to Chicago, to Kalamazoo, Mich., to Miami.

The intent behind the Harriman-Jewell Series Discovery Concerts is to introduce excellence and artistry to new audiences by eliminating a cost barrier. The free events begin at 7 p.m. (earlier than typical series performances) to better accommodate the schedules of families with children.

How to get tickets

To obtain free tickets for the concert at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Folly Theater, visit
www.hjseries.org to print tickets at home, or call (816) 415-5025 to request tickets. The David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation sponsors this event. The National Endowment for the Arts has underwritten the ‘09 Discovery Concerts.

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