Tulevaisuus
Makenzie Melemed
FOR YOUR
GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION
Best Classical Instrumental Solo
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Avner Dorman: Lament and Variations
“[Melemed] makes a striking debut CD with a program that pairs canonical piano works with contemporary responses to them.”
— American Record Guide
“Melemed’s performance is solid throughout. At 30 years old he has the potential for quite an amazing career … What an impressive way to start.”
— Cultural Attaché
ABOUT
LISTEN
Mackenzie Melemed’s debut album Tulevaisuus (Finnish for “future”) pairs music that has shaped his artistry with new works by Laura Kaminsky, Stephen Hough, and Avner Dorman, each inspired by Bach, Liszt, or Brahms. Hough’s Prelude and Fugue (Aeolian) reimagines Bach’s B-flat minor Prelude and Fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, weaving the letters of Melemed’s name into the fugue subject. Kaminsky’s Threnody…October 2024 offers a raw, urgent reflection on Liszt’s Funérailles. Dorman’s Lament and Variations, dedicated to the victims of the October 2023 attack in Israel, reflects on Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9, moving from sorrow to resilience before finding peace in stillness. Rooted in the past yet alive in the present, Tulevaisuus explores how memory and tradition can shape the music of the future.
ABOUT MAKENZIE MELEMED:
Recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 30-year-old American pianist Mackenzie Melemed has emerged as one of his generation’s most distinctive musical voices. A child prodigy, Melemed gave 500 concerts before age 13, including an appearance on The Rosie O’Donnell Show as well as five performances at The White House. A laureate of the 2021 American Pianists Awards and the 1st China International Music Competition, Melemed has collaborated with conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gerard Schwarz, Michael Stern, Mei-Ann Chen, Yoel Levi, and many others. He has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the KBS Symphony at venues like Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Helsinki Music Centre, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic. Melemed is a Steinway Artist and graduate of The Juilliard School’s prestigious Artist Diploma program, where he studied with Robert McDonald and Emanuel Ax.
