The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) will present a concert by Russian classical pianist Dmitri Ratser on Friday, Oct. 6, at 8 p.m. in the Conference Center on campus.
Dmitri Ratser
Ratser, who played previously at UTD in 1998 and 1999, will perform two Polonaises (c# minor, op. 26 #1 and f# minor, op. 44) by Chopin, two Preludes (c# minor op.3 #2 and g# minor op. 32 #12) by Rachmaninoff, two Etudes (c# minor op.2 #1 and d# minor op.8 #12) by Scriabin, Vallee d’Obermann from “Annee de Pelerinage” by Liszt, Two Romanian Dances (op.8/a) by Bartok, and Jazz Variations on a Theme by Paganini by Rosenblatt.
Tickets for the concert are $20 for the general public, $15 for students of other universities, $10 for UTD students, faculty and staff, and $5 for children under 18. In addition, UTD will host a champagne and chocolates black-tie reception following the concert. Tickets for the concert and the reception may be purchased for $40 per person.
Tickets are on sale Tuesdays to Fridays from 9: 30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Art & Performance Office in the Visual Arts Building on the UTD campus and at the door of each event one hour prior to show time. Tickets are also available for purchase with MasterCard and Visa by phone during office hours. Messages may be left on an automated information line at 972-883-2787 (972-UTD ARTS).
For information about the many musical, arts, theatre, dance and other performances and exhibitions held throughout the year at UTD, please call 972-UTD-ARTS (972-883-2787) e-mail utdarts@utdallas.edu, or visit the School of Arts and Humanities’ web site at www.utdallas.edu/ah. Persons with disabilities needing special accommodations may call 972-883-2982. Texas Relay Operator: 1-800-RELAYVV.
About the Artist
Dmitri Ratser attained status in the pantheon of Russian musicians by being added to the roster entitled “Soloists of the Moscow Philharmonic” in 1990. A First Prize winner in competitions, as late as 1986 Russian Pianist Dmitri Ratser to Give Return Performance at U.T. Dallas Budapest’s Liszt International Jubilee Competition, he also distinguished himself with top prize in Moscow’s All-Union Rachmaninoff Competition in 1983. One of the few internationally acclaimed pianists who include the complete works for piano and orchestra of Sergei Rachmaninoff in their regularly performed repertoire, he is so highly regarded an interpreter of Rachmaninoff that he performed at ceremonies opening the composer’s birthplace home as a museum in the village of Ivanovka near the town of Tambov in Russia.
Born in Moscow, in 1953, Dmitri Ratser comes from a family of professional musicians. Adjudged at an early age to be possessed of an unusually fine talent, the young artist became one of the select few to study at the Moscow conservatory under its famed pianistic pedagogue Flier. Dmitri Ratser began playing outside the former U.S.S.R. only as recently as 1989 when he appeared in Vienna for the first time. He toured annually throughout the myriad countries that comprised the U.S.S.R. and the Eastern Bloc of European nations during the 1980’s.
Discovered by American impresario and artists’ manager Maxi, Gershunoff while on a trip to Moscow in 1989, Mr. Ratser was appearing on “World Radio-Moscow” in a “Live” broadcast which Mr. Gershunoff thought was a recording of Vladimir Horowitz. When the performer and the circumstance were announced, the American manager proceeded to contract the artist and auditioned him, to reassure himself that the artist he heard on the radio and Dmitri Ratser were one and the same. When this proved true, arrangements were immediately begun for the 1990/1991 concert season which marked Dmitri Ratser’s introduction to the American concert-going public in East and West Coast recitals. He returned to the U.S.A in the Winter and spring of the 1991/1992 concert season, making his North American orchestral debut with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. He was invited to return to Austin each subsequent season since his debut. In the 1993/1994 concert season his tour consisted of some forty concerts, including a performance at Carnegie Hall and with the National Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich at the Kennedy Center. He has been heard in repeated appearances, by popular demand, on such prestigious recital series as that at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California where he joined the only other stellar pianists being reinvited in consecutive seasons: Andre Watts and Ivo Pogorelich. In fact, Dmitri Ratser has been consistently re-engaged to perform in consecutive seasons in over three-quarters of the Venues in which he has appeared in the United States. The reasoning for this popularity can perhaps be found in the words of the Los Angeles Times: “Ratser’s performance took one’s breath away with its mesmerizing single-mindedness, it inexorable force, it stunning virtuosity.”