Cecile Licad

Cecile Licad (b. May 11, 1961) is a renowned Filipina virtuoso classical pianist dubbed as "a pianist's pianist" by The New Yorker, "her artistry, a blend of daring musical instinct and superb training." ^[1]

Biography

Cecile Buencamino Licad was born in Manila, Philippines to a musical family, she began her piano studies at the age of three from her mother, Rosario Licad. She later studied with the highly regarded Rosario Picazo, and by the age of seven, made her debut as a soloist with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.

At the age of twelve, Cecile moved to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with three of the greatest performers/pedagogues: Rudolf Serkin, Seymour Lipkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski.^[2]

Awards

• Cecile won international recognition as one of the youngest musicians to ever receive the prestigious Leventritt Competition Gold Medal. In 1981, the award launched her international career performing with major orchestras in the world.
• Her recording of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2, with André Previn conducting the London Philharmonic, was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin in 1985, in the piano and orchestra works category by the Fryderyk Chopin Society, Warsaw, Poland.^[3]

Repertoire

Cecile Licad's repertoire as a solo performer and an orchestral soloist ranges from the classical repertoire of Mozart and Beethoven to the Romantic literature of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Rachmaninoff to the modern works of Debussy, Ravel, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Bartók.

Performances

Soloist

Licad has appeared with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Children's Orchestra,and the orchestras of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Phoenix and Vancouver.

Her summer festival appearances have included Tanglewood, the International Music Festival of Seattle, Marlboro Music Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival (in both New York and Tokyo), the Eastern Music Festival (Greensboro, NC) and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. In Europe she has played with the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; in Asia, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.

Chamber music

As an accomplished chamber musician, Cecile has appeared on television with Mstislav Rostropovich and has performed with ensembles such as the New York Chamber Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Guarneri Quartet, Takács Quartet, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Music from Marlboro. She also appeared as guest soloist on a European tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has performed in recital with Murray Perahia, Peter Serkin and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, with whom she has appeared at Lincoln Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C.. She performs regularly with cellist Alban Gerhardt, performing throughout Europe and the United States, including at the Frick Collection in New York City.

Other Performances

She appeared as a soloist in the Steinway Piano Sesquicentennial Celebration at Carnegie Hall in June 2003 performing six Rachmaninoff Songs with operatic tenor Ben Heppner.

She played in 2006 three Chopin's pieces and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz no.1(arr. Busoni) at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston MA . ("The Concert Podcast" live recordings available under Creative Commons Music Sharing licence at , and under artist classification by alphabet > L < at .)

In March 2007, she had a special performance together with her then 19-year old son Ottavio L. Meneses, also a pianist, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.^[4]

Discography

1. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, in A minor Op.43 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Claudio Abbado conducting from CBS Masterworks Records (1984).
2. Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 and Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 with André Previn conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra from CBS Masterworks.
3. Schumann's Carnaval, Papillons and Toccata in C Major from Sony Classical (1990).
4. Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A minor ('In Memory of a Great Artist'), Op. 50 and Brahms Trio for horn (or viola or cello), violin & piano in E flat major, Op. 40 with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Antonio Meneses and John Cerminaro from EMI (1994).^[5]
5. Cecile Licad Performs Chopin for Music Masters (1995).
6. Franck & Brahms Sonatas: Salerno-Sonnenberg Licad with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg for EMI.
7. Complete Beethoven Edition, Vol. 14: Misc. Chamber Works for Deutsche Grammophon (1997). Cecile with Patrick Gallois on flute performing Beethoven's Six National Airs with Variations for Flute and Piano, Op. 105 and Ten National Airs with Variations for Flute and Piano, Op. 107.
8. Ravel: Piano Works from Musical Heritage Society (1998).
9. Summerfest La Jolla 1998 from La Jolla Chamber Music Society (1998).
10. Marlboro Music Festival 50th Anniversary Album from Bridge Records (2001). Cecile with Mieczyslaw Horszowski performing Beethoven's Three Marches for Piano, 4 hands, Op. 45.^[6]
11. Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival: Haydn Guitar Quartet in D Major; Korngold Piano Quintet from Koch Classics (2002). Cecile with Arnold Steinhardt, Benny Kim and Eric Kim performing Korngold's Piano Quintet in E Major, Op. 15.
12. Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Piano Music from Naxos (2003).^[7]
13. Casals Encores from Hyperion Records (2011) with Cecile accompanying cellist Alban Gerhardt in an album of favorite encore pieces of Pablo Casals.^[8]

References

External links

• Cecile Licad's Official Web Site.
• Cecile Licad Music Samples on Amazon.com