NEWS RELEASE

News Bureau . Schofield Hall 201 . Eau Claire, WI 54702
phone: (715) 836-4741
fax: (715) 836-2900

EAU CLAIRE — Alexandre Dossin, assistant professor of music at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, will perform a solo concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 11, in Gantner Concert Hall of the Haas Fine Arts Center.

This will be Dossin’s first solo concert in Eau Claire since winning the first and special prizes at the prestigious second Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dossin calls it an “autobiographical recital” that will take listeners on a tour of all the countries that have been important in his life.

In acknowledgement of his Italian ancestry, Dossin will begin the concert with “a very calm and peaceful Notturno” by Ottorino Respighi. However, Dossin was actually born and raised in Brazil until the age of 18, so he will continue the concert with “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4,” a Brazilian tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos. The piece has four movements and each movement has two names: a baroque name followed by a Brazilian one.

In 1988, Dossin won an important piano competition in Brazil when he performed “Islamey,” a very difficult, exciting and rarely performed piece by Russian composer Mili Balakirev. The following year he attended a series of master classes in Rio de Janeiro and played the same piece for Russian professor Boris Romanov. On the strength of that performance, he won a full-ride scholarship to study in Moscow, and he traveled there in 1989. His tribute to Russia will include “Islamey,” as well as two etudes by Alexandr Scriabin and Tchaikovsky’s “Dumka.”
Finally, Dossin will acknowledge the United States, his home since 1998, by performing George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

“I hope the audience will appreciate this varied program and take a tour with me to these four very special countries,” said Dossin.

The concert is free and the public is invited.

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NW

Judy Berthiaume, Director
UW-Eau Claire News Bureau
Schofield 201
(715) 836-4741
newsbur@uwec.edu

Updated: February 4, 2004