Anita Castiglione + Paul Posnak: A Lifetime Making Music
PAUL POSNAK’S international career as a concert pianist, recording artist, transcriber and sought-after teacher began as a child prodigy with a full scholarship to the Juilliard Preparatory School of Music at the age of eight. Recipient of Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees at Juilliard, and of the Loeb Prize (its highest award), he won First Prizes in the International J.S. Bach Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York. He has performed at the White House, the Supreme Court, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., at Carnegie Recital and Tully Halls in New York, and throughout Europe, South America, and Asia to critical acclaim. A highly regarded collaborative artist, Dr. Posnak has worked with many world-renowned vocalists, including Luciano Pavarotti and Jennie Tourel, and performed and recorded with many of the world’s leading chamber ensembles, including the Emerson, Fine Arts, Vega, St. Petersburg, Amernet, Portland and Bergonzi String Quartets and the Italian Saxophone Quartet. His 19 recordings of solo and chamber works for EMI, Naxos, Vox, Arabesque, Centaur. Cambria and the Yamaha Disklavier Artist Series have received the highest praise from the leading international press. His recent film on Chopin, directed by documentary film maker Anthony Allegro, has also attracted international attention. In 2007, a CD recording, “The Tangos of Ernesto Nazareth,” was released on the Cambria label.
His recent performances as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center were described by the Washington Post as playing “with respect and passion, producing readings that were as notable for their musicality and their artistic integrity as they were for their pianism.” In May 2003, he gave a special performance for the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2005 and 2006, Dr. Posnak served as a judge of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
Recent engagements throughout the U.S. include a recital and master class at the Tanglewood Institute in MA, recital tours to Washington, D.C. (the National Gallery Concert Series), CA, NY, WA, TX, OH, and NM, and concerto performances with the New Philharmonic, Far Cry and Kremlin Chamber Orchestras and the Lynn University Philharmonia. Recent engagements in Europe and Japan include artist-in-residencies at the Akademie Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, at the Academie Pianistique Internationale in Aix-en-Provence, at Festival St. Cere in Quercy, France, and most recently, a three-week concert and master class tour of Japan. He is the Founding Artistic Director of the St. Martha-Yamaha Concert Series in Miami Shores, Florida.
Dr. Posnak is internationally renowned for his improvisations and note-for-note transcriptions of the great jazz pianist-composers of the 1920s and 1930s. His note-for-note reconstructions of the brilliant solo improvisations of George Gershwin and Thomas “Fats” Waller from the old studio recordings and radio broadcasts have established him as a world authority. Of his CD, “Gershwin’s Piano Improvisations,” the Washington Post said: “It is remarkably like having Gershwin himself in digital stereo.” His transcriptions of 16 of Thomas “Fats” Waller’s greatest solos have been re-issued in their second edition by Hal Leonard. His fantasy-arrangements of Gershwin Songs for Two Pianos were published by Alfred in August 2007 and were selected by the Murray Dranoff International Two-Piano Competition as the required work for the 2008 Competition. His original arrangements of twelve canciones of Ernesto Lecuona has just been released on CD, “To Lecuona with Love,” and in a coordinated publication by Hal Leonard.
Clavier said of his Naxos CD, “Ain’t Misbehavin,” “Posnak’s performances have the spontaneous character so necessary for Waller’s music, and he breezes through the hard-to-play passages with all the facility and verve of Liszt.” He is a featured artist on many National Public Radio and European radio broadcasts. Fluent in French and German, he is in much demand as a teacher and clinician both in the U.S. and abroad.
Dr. Posnak performs frequently as duo-pianist with his wife, Dr. Anita Castiglione. Their recent recording, “Gershwin for Two,” features his arrangements of the Gershwin Songbook for two pianos, and Gershwin’s own two-piano arrangement of “An American in Paris.” He is Professor Emeritus of Keyboard Performance and Director of the Collaborative Piano Program at the University of Miami, Frost School of Music, and is a recipient of the 2008 UM Excellence in Teaching Award. He is currently Director/VicePresident of the Miami Music Teachers Association.
ANITA CASTIGLIONE’S career as a soloist, collaborative pianist, choral accompanist, and music educator began with piano studies in Massachusetts at the age of six. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Miami and a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, both in piano performance. She was the recipient of the prestigious Juilliard Alumni Award. After several years on the music faculty of Livingston High School teaching AP Music Theory and as director of ensembles, she resumed her career as a collaborative pianist. She was awarded a Teaching Assistantship in the Doctoral Program in Collaborative Piano at the University of Miami, and the position of staff accompanist for the UM Frost School Program in Salzburg, Austria. She earned her Doctorate in Collaborative Piano in 2002.
Dr. Castiglione has performed extensively as a soloist and collaborative pianist throughout the United States, including performances of the Schumann Piano Concerto in a minor under the direction of Arthur Fiedler, the Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3 with the Princeton University Orchestra, and the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F with the Palm Beach Symphony. She has appeared in duo piano performances with husband, Paul Posnak, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Mohonk Summer Festival of the Arts in New York, the Yamaha Salon Studio in New York City, the Distinguished Artist Series at Palm Beach Atlantic University, the Martha-Mary Concert Series, the Achievement Heights Academy Concert Series, and with the Lynn Philharmonia Orchestra in Florida. Dr. Castiglione has collaborated with artists including David Alan Harrell, cellist, Cleveland Orchestra; Trudy Kane, flutist, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Bryon Grohman, tenor, faculty Wake Forest University and NC School of the Arts; Theodore Lambrinos, baritone, Metropolitan Opera; and Lisa Vroman, renowned musical theater soprano, among many others.
She recently collaborated with her husband Paul Posnak, on a new recording, “Gershwin for Two,” featuring Dr. Posnak’S arrangement of the Gershwin Songbook for two pianos, and Gershwin’s own two-piano arrangement of “An American in Paris.”
Dr Castigione was a faculty member at Palm Beach Atlantic University for eleven years serving as Collaborative Pianist and Vocal Coach, pianist for Women’s Chorale, and professor of Tonal Harmony. She has also served as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach at Florida International University. She has been the keyboardist for several ensembles including the Juilliard Chorus, the New Jersey All-State and Opera Festival Choruses, UM Collegium Musicum and the Master Chorale of South Florida. She was selected as an adjudicator for the National AP Music Theory Examinations, for the Florida State Music Teachers’ Association district piano competitions, and for the National Society for Arts and Letters Piano Competition. She is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society. Dr. Castiglione is currently adjunct faculty and pianist for the Frost Chorale, Bella Voce, and Chamber Singers choral ensembles at the University of Miami Frost School of Music.
The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 1 and 7 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.
EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES: 1:03 min.
EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES: 1:37 min.
VALUES FIRST-RATE EDUCATION: 2:49 min.
COLLABORATION: 3:11 min.
COLLABORATION: 3:20 min.
INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 3:08 min.
INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 2:38 min.
SERENDIPITY: 3:09 min.
COLLABORATION: 1:24 min.
OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED: 6:26 min.
