Young and talented
URL: http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grpress/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-2/1145544760142310.xml&coll=6
GRAND RAPIDS -- In a tiny fifth-floor apartment in Moscow -- a home so small, the piano divided the living room from the bedrooms -- began the career of a notable Russian pianist.
This isn't the story of Prokofiev or Shostakovich, and it didn't take place under Joseph Stalin.
It was the early 1990s, and the pianist is Natasha Paremski, one of the 2006 Young Artist Award winners of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival.
Although she was born in Moscow, Paremski became a California girl when her father was offered a job in the United States and emigrated from Russia.
"It was completely different. It was quite a jolt," she recalled, speaking English with just the barest hint of an accent.
But Paremski, 18, who began piano studies at age 4 in Moscow, soon returned to her musical studies.
"It was very difficult at first, finding a teacher and a piano," she said. "But I really did miss it a lot."
The rising young artist performs Sunday with the Grand Rapids Symphony and again Wednesday at Calvin College as part of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, which opens Saturday in Kalamazoo.
Paremski -- who made her Los Angeles Philharmonic debut at 15, her Carnegie Hall debut at 16 and already has made two compact discs with the Moscow Philharmonic -- will play Tchaikovsky's popular Piano Concerto No. 1 with David Lockington and the Grand Rapids Symphony.
She has played the well-known war-horse with orchestras in San Francisco and Houston, among others.
"I love the piece so much. It's such a true Russian piece," she said. "It's a very noble piece and very lyrical."
One of two newly minted Gilmore Young Artists -- the other is pianist Yuja Wang, who appeared three weeks ago with the Grand Rapids Symphony -- Paremski was first notified by letter last fall that she had been selected for the honor.
Her initial reaction was typical American skepticism.
"I thought, 'Is this some kind of sweepstakes or something?'" she recalled. "I had to read it, like, 10 times to have my body and mind accept it."
Paremski's recitals Monday in Kalamazoo and at Calvin College on Wednesday will include music by Chopin, Debussy, Stravinsky and by jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch, whom she knows from living in New York City.
"He's a fantastic pianist," Paremski said. "He's such a versatile artist, and his pieces are more classical in nature."
Paremski's recent performances include a performance in The Louvre in Paris in January and her debut earlier this month in London's Wigmore Hall.
Most unique of all, last month, she was part of a production of Broadway director John Caird's "Twin Spirits," a theatrical and musical production about the lives of Robert and Clara Schumann, composer and pianist.
The star-studded cast for the benefit performance included Tony Award-winning actor Jonathan Pryce as narrator, violinist Joshua Bell among other musicians, and rock legend Sting, who appeared on stage reading letters written by the 19th-century composer to his wife.
Paremski said she was surprised when her manager asked her to "do this little thing with Sting."
"Did you say Sting?" she recalled was her first question.
"It was very exciting, and I was so lucky to be a part of that," adding that she'll do the show again -- at Windsor Castle in England, with a London cast, but still with Sting as the brilliant composer plagued by mental instability.
A student at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, she also studied with eminent pianist Earl Wild, a past St. Cecilia Music Society Great Artist in 1992.
"He really is a legend, and he's actually a very fun person," she said. "He has so many stories to tell. He's an amazing personality."