David Witten, pianist
with
Grace Renée Pfleger, mezzo-soprano
This event forms part of Carnegie Hall’s festival, United in Sound: America at 250
Click here to register.
ABOUT THIS PERFORMANCE
American pianist David Witten returns to the Italian Academy to celebrate America’s 250th birthday with music by American and Italian-American composers. The program includes works by musicians who were personal friends of George Washington. Witten’s sold-out and warmly received 2024 recital at the Academy was part of Carnegie Hall’s festival "Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice."
Carnegie Hall's latest citywide festival, United in Sound: America at 250—a multifaceted reflection of the United States at 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence—is the occasion for Witten's unique and surprising program.
Witten, familiar to Italian Academy audiences from dazzling performances over the past several years, is a musician specializing in works by composers at risk of being unfairly forgotten, particularly the music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895–1968), a Jewish Italian who immigrated to the US in 1939. He wrote scores for more than 200 Hollywood films over the following 25 years. He became a US citizen in 1946. David Witten recorded Castelnuovo-Tedesco's music for solo piano and celebrated it with a recital at the Italian Academy in 2018.
In this recital, Witten will perform some of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's irresistible portraits of Hollywood stars: Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Mouse, and Deana Durbin. He'll also perform a sonata by Alexander Reinagle, a pianist and composer hired by George and Martha Washington to give lessons to their granddaughter (Nelly Custis); music of Francis Hopkinson, who signed the Declaration of Independence and dedicated his music to George Washington; Charles Ives's Variations on "America"; Judith Lang Zaimont's preludes evoking the months of the year; and Louis Moreau Gottschalk's inimitable work "The Banjo."
PROGRAM
Alexander Reinagle (1756–1809)
Sonata No. 2 in E Major (1790) (from The Philadelphia Sonatas)
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
George and Martha Washington engaged Alexander Reinagle to teach piano to their granddaughter, Nelly Custis
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895–1968)
Le Stagioni (The Seasons), Op. 33 (1924)
Autunno (Autumn)
Two Film Studies, Op. 67 (1931)
Charlie (Charlot) Allegretto malinconico
Mickey Mouse (Topolino) Moderato
Stars: Four Sketches for Piano, Op. 104 (1940)
(ii) Deanna Durbin
Words and Music by Francis Hopkinson (1737–1791)
Songs for Harpsichord or Fortepiano (1788)
(i) Come, Fair Rosina
(ii) My Love is Gone to Sea
(vi) Over the Hills
Grace Renée Pfleger, mezzo-soprano
Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, dedicated these songs to George Washington
Judith Lang Zaimont (b. 1945)
A Calendar Set (1972–78)
November (“November’s sky is chill and drear” – Sir Walter Scott)
July (“The Glorious Fourth!”)
Charles Ives (1874–1954)
Variations on “America” for Organ (1891)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869)
The Banjo (1853)
Gottschalk imitates mid-19th-century African-American banjo techniques.
Doors open at 6:30pm. Registration does not guarantee a seat; registrants are seated first-come, first served.
This event is in-person only.
This is the Academy's sixth collaboration with Carnegie Hall; learn more about the earlier initiatives:
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Pianist David Witten has been described as a pianist “with that rare, elusive quality that charms and fascinates the listener.” (Redondel, Milan, Italy) Witten’s international career has included numerous concert tours in Ireland, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Mexico, South America, China, and Taiwan. As the recipient of two Fulbright Scholar awards, Witten spent time teaching and concertizing throughout Brazil, and he is frequently invited back to give concerts and masterclasses.
Closer to home, Witten’s performances have included solo appearances with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and various chamber music collaborations with the Shanghai String Quartet and with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Witten has also been active in contemporary music. He has recorded Piano Music of Nicholas Van Slyck for Titanic Records, and has commissioned over a dozen new works for Soli Espri, a chamber trio he founded in Boston with clarinetist Chester Brezniak and mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato. With flutist Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, Witten formed Dúo Clásico; their recording, Flute and Piano Music of Latin America, was issued on the Musical Heritage Society label. Marco Polo Records released Witten’s solo recording, Piano Music of Manuel M. Ponce. His later recordings, Piano Music of Nikolai Tcherepnin, and Songs of Nikolai Tcherepnin with soprano Elena Mindlina, were issued on the Toccata Classics label. Witten subsequently recorded The Eclectic Piano Music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco for Albany Records. A later recording, issued in 2022 on Toccata Next, was Three Generations: Chamber Music of Ivan, Alexander, and Nikolai Tcherepnin.
As Vice-President of the Tcherepnin Society, Witten has created many significant international connections to promote the music of the three generations of the Tcherepnin composers. In 2024, during his eighth tour of China, Witten gave a Lecture/Recital at the Shanghai Conservatory titled “Alexander Tcherepnin’s Fourth Piano Concerto based on Three Chinese Legends.”
Witten’s involvement in music has not been limited to performance. He was the editor of Nineteenth-Century Piano Music: Essays in Performance and Analysis (Garland Publishing, 1997), which includes his landmark analytical study of the Chopin Ballades.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Witten received his early training at the Peabody Conservatory, and at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. His undergraduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University led to a degree in Psychology. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in piano performance from SUNY at Buffalo. Later graduating with high honors from Boston University, he earned the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance. His most influential teachers have been Tinka Knopf, Benjamin Oren, Reynaldo Reyes, Walter Hautzig, Leo Smit, Anthony di Bonaventura, and Dorothy Taubman. After twenty years as an active recitalist, chamber music pianist, and teacher in the Boston area, Witten accepted a position at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, New Jersey, where he is currently Coordinator of Keyboard Studies.
Grace Renée Pfleger, mezzo-soprano, is an opera singer, music therapist, and community advocate. Pfleger is pursuing her Artist Diploma on full scholarship at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, studying with Beth Roberts, where she had the honor of singing for acclaimed mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard in masterclass.
With an artistic mission to share the joy of music and life, Pfleger is the creator of the acclaimed Music Through Generations program, which has received national recognition, including a feature by National Public Radio (NPR). Grace performs outreach concerts and is the first vocalist of the Cali Collective, the school’s outreach program.
Pfleger has performed on regional and international stages including as a Resident Artist with Opera Roanoke, Radford Opera Studio, Middlebury College German for Singers, Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, Germany, and Opera Lucca in Tuscany, Italy. Since moving to the NYC area, she has performed with Cali Opera Studio, Opera at Florham, and Music for All Seasons.
Hailing from Roanoke, Virginia, Pfleger holds a Master of Science in Music Therapy from Radford University and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with a minor in German from UNC School of the Arts, where she was named the Presser Scholar.
Connect with Grace online through Instagram at @grace_the_ginger1
