My guest on the 70th episode of Dress Rehearsal is Bulgarian pianist Ivo Varbanov, who is a leading figure of Bulgarian music and culture abroad. After a forced hiatus from performing between 2009 to 2012 due to leukaemia he has returned to the stage with impressive performances at the Royal Festival Hall, King’s Place, Cadogan Hall, and the Bulgaria Concert Hall. He is a recipient of the Ivan Vazov Award for the popularization of Bulgarian Culture abroad, and in 2011 he also received the Silver Lion Award. Ivo started to play the piano at the age of six in his home town with Eleonora Karamisheva (who was one of the last pupils of Dimitar Nenov). After emigrating to Italy with his mother (a professional cellist) at the age of nine, he continued his studies with Riccardo Bertazzolo and in Milan with the Hungarian pianist Ilonka Deckers, who left an indelible mark on his personal, musical, and pianistic development. After his graduation at the age of twenty, he came to England to work with Sulamita Aronovsky at the Royal Northern College of Music and with Frank Wibaut at the Royal Academy of Music, completing his postgraduate studies in 1998 (on a Rotary Foundation Scholarship). He also studied privately with Dennis Lee and was inspired in masterclasses by Alexander Lonquich, Barry Douglas, and Lev Naumov. He has toured extensively the United Kingdom, Europe and the USA and his performances have been broadcast on national radio and television around the world. His partners in chamber music concerts include his wife Fiammetta Tarli and Konstantin Lifschitz (two pianos/four hands), the violinist Ofer Falk, cellists László Fenyo, Jozef Lupták and Hillel Zori, the Allegri Quartet, and the Voland Quartet (a two pianos and percussion ensemble founded in 2001 with Michał Drewnowski). In 2014 with his wife Ivo started an independent audiophile record label, ICSM Records (Independent Creative Sound and Music Records). Don't miss it! 

My guest on the 69th episode of "Dress Rehearsal", is New York-based pianist Eleonor Bindman, who is also an educator and a recording artist. Originally from Riga, Latvia, Ms. Bindman is known worldwide for her continued passion with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and for her dedication in creating “transcriptions” of Bach’s orchestral music for either piano solo or for piano duet. Ms. Bindman’s arrangement of the Six Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, was a very extensive project that took several years to complete and which we featured here on this radio program in March 2021. Furthermore Ms. Bindman also transcribed all of the Cello Suites for piano solo, which she also recorded and which we also featured in our previous interview but today we are here to talk about another titanic project, the transcription of all of Bach's Orchestral Suites for piano duet and the recording that was released earlier this year by the label Grand Piano. Don't miss it!

My guest on the 68th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" is Pianist Danny Holt, who has been called “phenomenal” by the late music critic Alan Rich and hailed as one of the “local heroes” of the Los Angeles music scene, pianist Danny Holt brings his boundless energy and wit to unique interpretations of new music, 20th-century music, and obscure, unusual, and neglected repertoire from past centuries. Holt performs around the globe in concert halls (Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl), clubs (Joe’s Pub, The Blue Whale, Copenhagen Jazzhouse) art galleries (MASS MoCA, Hammer Museum), churches, living rooms, and wherever else he can find a piano and someone to listen. Danny is also a fine percussionist, composer, teacher, and scholar and he splits his time between Maine, Los Angeles and Desert Hot Springs, in California, where he runs Desert Hot Springs Classical Concerts, an annual concert series for residents and visitors to the Palm Springs area. During the hour we will talk about Danny's latest CD release, published by Innova Records, featuring piano music by Mike Garson, a classically trained pianist (and a composer) who is mostly known for his collaboration with David Bowie. Mike Garson's extreme virtuosity and improvisatory style, requires a delicate process of transcription featuring a Yamaha Disklavier Grand Piano that can "record" and notate what Mike plays. Over the years Mike has collected several pieces using this process and later Danny recorded them, and during the hour we will have a chance to hear a few of them. Mike's music is very improvisatory in breath and requires a monster technique, which Danny has no problems in displaying. Don't miss this very exciting podcast and a chance to hear great piano music.