Duo Harmonia, Celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of Their Debut Album Harmonia.
[Turkishlibrary.Us] In December 2020, acclaimed piano ensemble Duo Harmonia, consisting of Turkish-American pianist Pınar Başgöze and Portuguese-American pianist Susana Pinto, celebrated the 2nd anniversary of their debut album Harmonia.
Founded in 2008, Duo Harmonia, have been performing regularly in and around the state of Minnesota, USA, and internationally. They have frequently been invited to perform in concert series such as the MacPhail Center for Music Spotlight Series (Minneapolis, MN), Schubert Club Court Room Series (St. Paul, MN), Thursday Musical Artist Series (Twin Cities, MN), 88s at Sundin Series (Hamline University, St. Paul MN), Central Michigan University School of Music Alumni Concert Series (Mt. Pleasant, MI), and Rádio e Televisão de Portugal Antena 2 (Lisbon, Portugal).
The duo has also given concerts to raise funds for several charity organizations, such as Valley Presbyterian Church (Golden Valley, MN) collecting donations for low income Minnesotan families, and Bridge to Turkey Fund Empowerment Education Scholarships with the partnership of Association for Supporting Contemporary Life (Çağdaş Yasamı Destekleme Derneği), for economically disadvantaged girls in rural Turkey.
Duo Harmonia believes that these three new pieces based on fables each of which entails the traditions and characteristics unique to the folk cultures of each aforementioned country would especially be appealing to the younger generations to learn about an old tradition of storytelling. The Turkish fable Pınar Başgöze chose for this endeavor is the wonderful fable “A Cloud in Love” [“Sevdali Bulut”] written by Turkey’s distinguished poet Nazim Hikmet. As a lifelong dream of hers, Başgöze translated the story into English and commissioned Turkey’s eminent, award winning contemporary composer Turgay Erdener to write a piece for piano four hands and a narrator on this wonderful story of strength of women, resilience, purity, honesty, and power of love winning over despots and tormentors.
Pınar Başgöze, a native of Ankara, Turkey, received her B. A. and M. A. degrees in piano performance under the tutelage of Professor Banu Perk at Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory in Turkey. After winning the third prize in The British Council the Young Musician of the Year Piano Competition 1998 in Turkey, she studied Piano Pedagogy and Performance with Professor Maria Curcio in London. She moved to Minnesota in 2000 to study piano performance and pedagogy with Dr. Paul Shaw at the University of Minnesota School of Music by receiving a Teaching Assistantship.
Susana Pinto, a native of Lisbon, Portugal, received her B. A. in piano performance at the Escola Superior de Musica de Lisboa under the tutelage of Tania Achot and Pedro Burmester. Her M. A in piano performance and pedagogy is from Central Michigan University with Alexandra Mascolo-David. Her DMA in piano performance is from the University of Iowa, under the supervision of Réne Lecuona.
Both Susana and Pınar are full time piano faculty members at MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis, Minnesota and skillfully managing a life filled with teaching piano, performing, and raising their families. Their passion has been to interconnect musical traditions from different countries. Their mission is to enrich their audiences’ perception of music and contribute to the cultural diversity of different communities. Additionally, the duo has found their unique voice as an ensemble, unequivocally stating that cultural differences neither segregate nor discriminate, but only draw different cultures together.
In line with their mission, the duo has commissioned new works infused with Portuguese and Turkish musical traditions such as Fado and Central Anatolian folk tunes. Subsequently, three composers of different nationalities composed pieces for and dedicated to the duo: Childhood Dreams by Mario Franco (Portugal); Anatolian-Portuguese Suite by Christopher Norton (London, England); A Tale of Three Cities: Scenes from Istanbul, Scenes from Lisbon, Scenes from Minneapolis by Gregory Theisen (Minnesota, USA). The inclusion of these works in the duo’s repertoire introduces, documents, and preserves their own musical and cultural heritage, increasing the awareness of international audiences in diverse ethno-musical traditions, as well as harnessing the creativity of composers from different cultures.
Duo Harmonia’s CD Harmonia is available on all the digital platforms.
Please visit Duo Harmonia’s website at www.duoharmonia.com
If you would like to listen to a live concert by Duo Harmonia you can watch their full concert held at the Portugal National Radio and Television, in September 2019, by following the link below.
https://www.rtp.pt/antena2/concertos-antena2/duo-harmonia-4-setembro_4309
You can also follow Duo Harmonia on:
https://www.instagram.com/_duo_harmonia_/
https://www.facebook.com/DuoHarmoniaBasgozePintoDuo
https://www.rtp.pt/antena2/concertos-antena2/duo-harmonia-4-setembro_4309