Piano Fellows Ariel Lanyi & Janice Carissa
Vail Interfaith Chapel 2024 Bravo! Vail Piano Fellows, Ariel Lanyi & Janice CarissaBravo! Vail’s 2024 Piano Fellows Ariel Lanyi and Janice Carissa team up to perform a program of four-hands music written by Schubert during the last year of his life.
Featured Artists
Janice Carissa
Ariel Lanyi
Janice Carissa
piano
A Gilmore Young Artist and winner of Salon de Virtuosi, Janice Carissa has “the multicolored highlights of a mature pianist“ (Philly Inquirer) and “strong, sure hands” (Voice of America) that “conveys a vivid story rather than a mere showpiece” (Chicago Classical Review). She has garnered great acclaims at renowned concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, United Nations, Kennedy Center, Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Louis Vuitton Foundation, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Following her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at age 16, Janice has substituted Andre Watts as soloist with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and gone on to perform with the Kansas City, Amarillo, Des Moines, John Hopkins, St. Peters by the Sea, Symphony in C, Eastern Wind, Bay Atlantic, and Midwest Young Artist symphonies. In 2023, she will be a featured soloist with Sacramento Philharmonic, Promusica Chamber Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and the Tacoma and Battlecreek symphonies.
Janice's passion for chamber music has led her to performances with Brooklyn Chamber Music Society and Jupiter Chamber Concert Series; collaborations with Vadim Gluzman, Miriam Fried, Paul Neuebauer, Lucy Shelton, Marcy Rosen, David Shifrin, Jennifer Cano, Peter Wiley, among other distinguished musicians; and appearances at Marlboro, North Shore, Ravinia, Caramoor, and Kneisel Hall festivals.
A pupil of Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald, Janice left Indonesia in 2013 and entered the Curtis Institute of Music with full scholarship from Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest. Now graduated with bachelor's degree, she is pursuing her master's degree at The Juilliard School with Robert McDonald. When away from the piano, Janice is an avid foodie and loves going on strolls with her camera.
Ariel Lanyi
piano
In March 2023, Ariel Lanyi was honored to receive the Prix Serdang, a Swiss prize awarded by the distinguished Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. The prize is endowed with CHF 50,000 and is not a competition, but a recognition of a young pianist’s achievements and an investment in their future.
Prior to this Ariel won third prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition, performing Brahms Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze in the Finals. He was a prize winner in the inaugural Young Classical Artists Trust (London) and Concert Artists Guild (New York) International Auditions, also in 2021.
Highlights this season include returns to the Wigmore Hall, Vancouver Recital Society, Miami International Piano Festival, and Nottingham International Piano Series, as well his debuts with the Frankfurt Alter Oper as part of their debut concert series and at Merkin Hall in New York.
On the concerto platform Ariel has appeared with various orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Viva, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the latter of which he will return to this season for a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 503.
Future notable engagements include his debut with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Grafenegg Festival and a tour to China.
An avid chamber musician, Ariel has collaborated with leading members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as well as with eminent musicians such as Maria João Pires, Marina Piccinini, Charles Neidich, and Torleif Thedéen. Recent highlights have included projects at the Wigmore Hall, Homburg MeisterKonzert series in Germany, the Menton Festival in France, Perth Concert Hall (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), and across the UK including the Brighton and Bath Festivals.
Ariel also recorded with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under the auspices of the Orpheum Stifftung as part of their Next Generation Mozart Soloist series, and gave recitals at the Kissinger Sommer, Fundaçion Juan March in Madrid, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Ariel regularly appears in concerts broadcasts on Israeli radio & television and on Radio France and has recorded live concerts for the Vancouver Recital Society and Banco de la República Colombia.
In 2021 Linn Records released his recording of music by Schubert to critical acclaim, with future releases also planned in the coming seasons.
Born in Jerusalem in 1997, Ariel studied with Lea Agmon and Yuval Cohen. Based in London, he recently completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Hamish Milne and Ian Fountain. He has received extensive tuition from eminent artists such as Robert Levin, Murray Perahia, Imogen Cooper, Leif Ove Andsnes, Steven Osborne, and the late Leon Fleisher and Ivan Moravec.
Awards include first prize at the 2018 Grand Prix Animato Competition in Paris and first prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition, as well as a finalist award at the Rubinstein Competition.
- Ariel Lanyi, 2024 Bravo! Vail Piano Fellow
- Janice Carissa, 2024 Bravo! Vail Piano Fellow
Program Notes
Eight Variations on a Theme from Hérold’s Marie, D. 908
SCHUBERT
Eight Variations on a Theme from Hérold’s Marie, D. 908
Allegro in A minor, Lebensstürme, D. 947
SCHUBERT
Allegro in A minor, Lebensstürme, D. 947
Rondo in A major, D. 951
SCHUBERT
Rondo in A major, D. 951
Fantasie in F minor, D. 940
SCHUBERT
Fantasie in F minor, D. 940
Allegro molto moderato
Largo
Scherzo. Allegro vivace
Finale. Allegro molto moderato
(Played without pause)
As with most other mediums he set his hand to, Schubert left a large legacy of music for piano four-hands, mostly composed for private enjoyment at the ‘Schubertiads’ hosted by the composer’s Viennese friends. The selections on today’s program were all written in the last two years of the composer’s life, and together serve as a companion piece to Bravo! Vail’s Immersive Experiences series, “Schubert’s Last Year.”
The charming Variations are on a theme from the opera Marie by Ferdinand Hérold, which had been a success at the Opéra-Comique in Paris several years before. Although Lebensstürme (“life’s storms”) was probably titled by the publisher for commercial reasons, it does seem apt for such a highly dramatic work. In contrast, the Rondo is warm and lyrical, filled with elegant flourishes. Dedicated to the Countess Caroline Esterhazy, to whom Schubert once claimed that, in his own mind, all his works were dedicated, the magnificent Fantasie constitutes a true masterpiece.
