CayMusicA hosts successful piano festival

By Lindsey Turnbull

The newly rebranded CayMusicA (formerly known as Cayman Arts Festival) has got off to a busy start under its new name, with the well-supported Cayman Piano Festival, one of its first successes under its new moniker.

Executive Director Marius Gaina said this was the fourth edition of Cayman Piano Festival which was held over ten days in early October. This year’s event had been something of a reunion for CayMusicA Co-Founder, Artistic Director and Pianist, Glen Inanga.

“Glen managed to invite many of his colleagues from the Royal Academy of Arts, many of whom he has known for 20 or 30 years, plus he invited one of his very favourite pianists, Artur Pizarro, to come and play,” Mr Gaina explained.

World class talent

Artur Pizarro is an internationally acclaimed Portuguese concert pianist, and he joined other world class performers, including Ukrainian-born, internationally celebrated pianist Konstantin Lifschitz, and pianist Tamami Honma, who also has an acclaimed international career. All three performed solo recitals, engaging the audience with music by the likes of Chopin, Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy (Arturo), Bach and Robert Schumann (Konstantin) and Bach, Beethoven and Ravel (Tamami).

Cuban pianist, UCCI student Marlon Cortes brought the music of his country to the audience, playing in the Rising Stars event. This is an event which each year showcases the next generation of musicians, offering them a platform to shine and share their passion for music with the community.

At the heart of CayMusicA (as with Cayman Arts Festival), has always been a desire to encourage young Caymanians to enjoy and play classical music. For this year’s Cayman Piano Festival, in addition to wowing concert-goers, Artur spent time with Cayman’s young and budding musicians, working with students at Clifton Hunter High School holding workshops, masterclasses and tutoring.

“Artur also played a concert for around 120 year 7 students in which students enjoyed the music of Debussy,” Mr Gaina said. “He then worked one-to-one with three advanced students so he could assess their levels and help them improve.”

Mr Gaina said that out of the three students, one was the current Young Musician of the Year, and all gained from this valuable time spent with one of the world’s best pianists.

Ideal location

He was particularly pleased that the piano festival had found its identity over the years, with its location at the George Town Public Library now a regular feature and adding hugely to the atmosphere of the event.

“In the George Town Public Library, we have room for an amazing grand piano and we can host around 100 people, which works out really well as we usually have between 80 and 90 people in attendance at each event, almost always at capacity,” Mr Gaina advised. “It’s a really nice amount of people who are exposed to piano music. The size allows us to keep the event cosy and familiar – the audience is so close to the stage they are able to talk directly with the performers.”

The atmosphere at the location is further enhanced by CayMusicA’s desire to incorporate local art as a backdrop to the incredible music.

“This time we managed to have artwork both to the left and to the right of the pianist,” Mr Gaina said. “Artwork was by local artists Janine Every and Josie Frazer.”

Even though CayMusicA could now rightly celebrate the success of this brilliant piano festival, they were already looking forward to the next event in their jam-packed calendar. At the time of writing, CayMusicA was in full swing preparing for An Evening of Jazz, again to be held at the George Town Public Library. This was set to feature several performers, including multi-instrumentalist Beneil Miller, Cuban pianist Marlon Cortes, as well as musicians Jonathan McDonald, and Kharim Samuels & Core. Watch this space for more updates on CayMusicaA’s fantastic schedule of events.