This article was originally published by the Florida Weekly
It could take more than a lifetime for German-born Iranian pianist Schaghajegh Nosrati, 32, to master all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard works. Ms. Nosrati will perform on Jan. 11 in Punta Gorda and Jan. 12 in the auditorium of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, Bonita Springs.
Already renowned for her Bach interpretations, she appears to be well on her way.
“When I was a child,” she remembers, “I wasn’t so aware of the complexity of Bach’s music, but its beauty attracted me from the very beginning. Later I discovered how well made the music is, with incredible craft and structure. It’s so fascinating that I never get tired of it. It’s something you can spend your whole life on, and it’s still not enough. I wish I had more lifetime!”
This fall, she released a recording of Bach’s Partitas BWV 825-830, a set of six keyboard suites, the first of which will begin her Grand Piano Series program.
“What I love about Bach’s music is this particular mixture of clarity and warmth … light and shade, hope and doubt, spirituality and worldliness,” says Ms. Nosrati. “And it’s this ambivalence which, I think, gives his music its great humanity.”
“It is very rare that a young musician is dedicated to the music of J. S. Bach as Schaghajegh Nosrati is,” says her teacher, mentor and sometime performance partner Sir András Schiff. “She understands and plays this great music with astonishing clarity, purity and maturity.”
All of this concert’s pieces are multifaceted; with much to hold listener’s interest in the partitas seven stylized dances, Schumann’s nine forest scenes, Haydn’s three lively movements and Bartók’s 15 peasant dances.
“In this program, too,” Nosrati said, “all the pieces are connected to nature or have a pastoral character.
Ms. Nosrati began at the age of four, worked with the same teacher for four years and moved on to her main teacher, Rainer Maria Klaas, with whom she worked until entering Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover at the age of 18.
Her international breakthrough came in 2014 as an award winner at the Leipzig International Bach Competition. Her international career has since been marked, not only by prizes at national and international piano competitions, but also by highly praised performances at prestigious worldwide venues. Recent and upcoming highlights as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras include debuts at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Gilmore International Piano Festival, and a return to the Vancouver Recital Society and Palau de la Musica Barcelona.
Ms. Nosrati has joined both Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and the Barenboim-Said-Academy in Berlin as a faculty member. Her teachers include Ewa Kupiec and Sir András Schiff, who have become mentors and frequent artistic partners.
She has served since 2020 as teaching assistant to Sir András. “Only a generous character can produce generous art,” she says of Sir András. “By that I mean that, an artist doesn’t just play well and know a lot, but also should be open to other people, their feelings and needs. If you have that in your character, it somehow shows up in the sensitivity of your playing.” Schaghajegh Nosrati’s concerts will be Jan. 11 at Gulf Theater at The Military Heritage Museum, 900 W. Marion Avenue, Punta Gorda, and Jan. 12 in the auditorium of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, 28290 Beaumont Road, Bonita Springs. Both concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at www.grandpianoseries.org; for information, call 646-734-8179
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