World Ballet Pianist's Day
Maestro Massimiliano Greco is the Main Pianist and Head of the Music Department of the Acadèmie Princesse Grace at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Monaco.
He is initiating the establishment of a World Ballet Pianist's Day!
Maestro Greco is a highly decorated pianist and composer who is lauded around the world as a ballet pianist. He has recorded a collection of 20 CDs of pure music and music for ballet. The day of the year he has chosen is October 9, the birth of the pianist Alexander Siloti.
In Maestro's own words:
Why Siloti?
Siloti was a pioneer among concert pianists linked to dance, particularly to Tchaikovsky, of whom he was also a student at the conservatory and a relative.
He wrote the first high-level professional transcriptions of famous ballets, including, at Tchaikovsky's request, Sleeping Beauty, as well as Glazunov's Raymonda, and the ballet music from Mozart's Idomeneo.
Siloti embodies the first perfect fusion between a traditional pianist and one specialised in dance. His contribution to the world of ballet music is fundamental to the development of the relationship between music (particularly pianists) and dance.
This day represents a tribute to this extraordinary artistic category that inspires and enhances the world of dance with music.
The project will be disclosed to all ballet pianists around the world and also counts on the support of all directors, ballet teachers and everyone in the Dance World for its diffusion.
One of the goals is also to create a database of original compositions specifically written for ballet class, since among them there are real masterpieces that risk being unknown.
The goal is to introduce people to new musical literature in a virtual library, accessible both by professionals and by all those who love dance and music.
A Facebook page has been created: "World Ballet Pianists Day", and an email address where you can write to receive updates and support the initiative: worldballetpianistsday@gmail.com A dedicated site will be created soon.
(Siloti was Sergei Rachmaninoff's cousin. He gave the world premiere of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the composer as soloist in 1901. Read more about this marvellous historical figure here.)