Maksim:
A New World Concert
 Phenomenal
young pianist Maksim is ready to conquer Asia once
more with his New World Concert World Tour and will be stopping
by Manila on December 16 for another smashing classical concert.
Not only will he be performing at the PICC Plenary Hall at
8 PM that day, Maxim will be also giving his beloved supporters
a chance to meet and greet him in person, on December 15,
a day before his concert.
Ever since the release of Maksim’s first album for
EMI Classics, The Piano Player, the young Croatian’s
career flourished. His first album had great international
success, particularly across Asia, where it had gone Gold
in Malaysia, Indonesia and China, Platinum in Taiwan and Singapore
plus Double Platinum in Hong Kong. Maksim released his second
album for EMI Classics in the autumn of 2004, entitled Variations
I & II. It included the track “Olympic Dream”,
which appeared both on his album and on Harmony the official
classical album for last year’s Olympic Games.
Only two months after its release, Variations went Gold in
Taiwan and shortly after, Maksim went on a hugely successful
tour of South East Asia at the end of that month and through
December. Maksim named this tour as the highlight of his year:
“For the highlight I would probably say, was my concert
tour in Asia, where I played as a soloist with orchestras
all around Asia.” Not long into 2005 Variations went
Gold in Maksim’s homeland of Croatia and it has now
gone Platinum in Taiwan. In April 2005 Maksim took off on
another sell-out tour, this time of Japan, with the Moscow
Symphony Orchestra. Again, the tour was a massive success
and there he was critically acclaimed as the greatest pianist
since Liszt.
Maksim has now released his third album entitled A New World.
This has once again brought him together with Tonci Huljic,
who spotted Maksim soon after a special launch in Zagreb back
in 2001. The two have worked together from the beginning of
Maksim’s recording career, Tonci producing his previous
multi-awarded records and the new album promises to continue
this tradition, with a selection of new tracks that range
from romantic pieces like Somewhere in Time and Deborah’s
Theme, to energetic pieces such as Nostradamus and Mojito.
There are also popular classical pieces including The Flower
Duet, Ride of the Valkyries, Intermezzo and an arrangement
of Dvorák’s ‘New World’ Symphony.
Maksim said “The New World Symphony is a very interesting
sound for me because there is a fantastic arrangement for
the piano … it sounds like a proper classical concert
piece but it’s not. So I was very excited to play this
piece.”
Maksim Mrvica (pronounced ‘Máravitsa’)
was born in 1975 in a town called Sibenik on the Adriatic
coast in Croatia. He started having piano lessons at the age
of nine with Marija Sesko and gave his first public performance
in the same year. When war broke out in 1990, both Maksim
and his professor were determined that this should not disturb
his musical studies. “There were a thousand grenades
a day in my town,” said Maksim, “but you can’t
just stop living – you must go on. And the only thing
I could find to help me was my piano.” In spite of the
awful circumstances, in 1993 Maksim entered and won his first
major competition in Zagreb. “I’ve always felt
that that was my greatest victory and the most wonderful memory
of my whole career”, he said.
Following this success, Maksim went to study at the Music
Academy in Zagreb where he spent five years under Professor
Vladimir Krpan, who himself was a pupil of Arturo Benedetto
Michelangeli. He then spent a year at the Franz Liszt Conservatoire
in Budapest and during this year he won first prize at an
international competition, the Nicolai Rubinstein International
Piano Competition. A year later, he moved to Paris to study
with Igor Lazko and there, in 2001 he gained first prize in
the Pontoise Piano Competition.
This proved to be a turning point in Maksim’s career.
When he returned to his homeland of Croatia he found himself
the focus of intense media interest. He soon found himself
recording his first CD, “Gestures” an album of
contemporary Croatian piano pieces. This was a project of
which Maksim was proud but he was determined to remain realistic
about its possible success, expecting it to sell just a handful
of copies and largely sit on shop shelves untouched. He couldn’t
have been more wrong. The album was launched at a special
recital event in the 2000-seat Lisinski Hall in Zagreb, which
included a laser show and a video wall. Following this launch,
“Gestures” quickly became one of the fastest-selling
classical recordings ever released in Croatia and ended up
winning four Porin awards, the Croatian equivalent of a Grammy
award, including the award for Best Classical Album.
And what does Maksim have to say about all this publicity
and his phenomenal success? “Well, it’s not a
question of money ... I just always wanted to take a different
approach. It’s a question of experimenting. I always
wanted to try something different, something new. I want to
reach as many people of all ages with classical music. That’s
my dream.”
Tune in to Myx, Lifestyle Network and Breakfast for more
information on the Maksim New World Concert and the meet and
greet which will be happening on Dec 15, at ABS-CBN. For ticket
inquiries call Viva Concerts at 6876181 loc 620 or 715 or
buy your tickets at any Ticketnet outlets and Ticketworld
outlets at all National Bookstore branches.
Kapamilya Usap
Tayo on ABS
CBN Forum
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