Jerome Rose Lauds Yamaha CFX Concert Grand Piano
According to Rose, the artists who performed at IKIF "had a great sense of joy" when playing the CFX.
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The prestigious International Keyboard Institute & Festival, held at New York's Mannes College, included 28 concert events, including the young artist Prestige Series, and the evening Masters Series concerts. Throughout the festival, the CFX was selected more times than the two remaining instruments, combined.
“We were very pleased to have premiered the instrument at IKIF,” says Rose, who has been called an “unbelievably brilliant pianist and virtuoso” by the Berlin Morning Post. “The instrument met all expectations; not only mine but those of the artists that chose it. The CFX satisfied all the discriminating artists who played it. They had a great sense of joy when playing it. Kudos to Yamaha.”
Guest artist faculty at IKIF included distinguished pianists Joaquín Achúcarro and Akiko Ebi, as well as Yamaha Artists Alexander Kobrin and Olga Kern, all of whom gave master classes and performed in recitals in the Masters Series. Since 1999 the Festival has attracted students from around the world to study with Faculty Artists, participate in master classes and attend concerts and lectures given by some of the world's best-known pianists and scholars.
Yamaha launched the 9' CFX full concert grand in January 2010. In addition to drawing on its 108-year heritage of manufacturing the world's finest pianos, the instrument represents 19 years of research and development conducted by Yamaha craftsmen, designers and engineers to create this extraordinary handcrafted piano. The process culminated with a series of top-secret, in-depth evaluation sessions conducted in New York, Paris and Tokyo with top artists and Yamaha Artist Services personnel over the last few years.
“Having Jerome Rose decide to go with the CFX for the opening IKIF recital is something significant,” adds James Steeber – Yamaha Artist Services Director. “He would never choose an instrument which would in any way diminish his performance, and as it is – he gave one of the recitals of his career.”
“My relationship with Yamaha goes way back,” notes Rose, who just produced his fifth concert DVD, filmed live at Yamaha Artist Services for Medici Classics. While his relationship with Yamaha is longstanding, and his respect for other models sincere, Rose remains particularly impressed with the new CFX.
“There is a bloom to the sound, you can feel the piano speak to you. Pianists look to find a partner in their piano. It's like a marriage - you want the piano to talk back to you in a way that you can understand,” he said.
Continued Rose, “Yamaha was successful in creating a piano with a soul of its own. The CFX will be added to the pantheon of great pianos.”
Hailed as “the Last Romantic of our own age” and one of America's most distinguished pianists, Jerome Rose has been heard in major concert halls across five continents. A Gold Medalist from the International Busoni Competition, Mr. Rose began his international career while still in his early twenties.
He was a pupil of Adolph Baller when, at the age of 15, he debuted with the San Francisco Symphony. A graduate of the Mannes College and the Juilliard School of Music, Jerome Rose studied with Leonard Shure and Rudolf Serkin at Marlboro. In 1961 he was a winner of the Concert Artists Guild award and was also a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna. Mr. Rose has given master classes at the Moscow Conservatory, the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Munich Hochschule, and the Toho Conservatory of Music in Tokyo, Japan. He is on the Faculty of the Mannes College and is Founder/Director of the International Keyboard Institute & Festival held every summer in New York City. Mr. Rose's performances at the Festival have been recorded by WFMT Chicago and NPR for worldwide radio broadcast.
For more information about Yamaha Corporation of America, write Yamaha Corporation of America, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; call (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit http://www.yamaha.com/press.