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Itin, whose playing has been described in London's Daily
Telegraph as "poised, pure and ravishing," caught Brodsky's
attention when she heard reaction to his winning of the 1996
Leeds Competition. "They say there has not been a winner of
this caliber since Murray Perahia won it," she says. "And
I have heard him in person. He is just incredible."
When Brodsky read an article about Kempf, pointing out that
even with only a third-place win at the 1998 Tchaikovsky Competition
in Moscow he was the only one with the depth to have a career,
she knew she had another pianist for the festival. An enthusiastic
recommendation from veteran pianist Ivan Davis confirmed that
choice.
Brodsky has also asked previous festival participants to
suggest pianists, which is how she learned of Burstein; Lifschitz,
who makes his Florida Philharmonic debut later this month,
put in a strong word for his fellow Russian. Bringing back
the highly imaginative Anderszewski and Gekic for this year's
roster was an easy decision.
Finding the money to present all this music is more difficult.
"We have a few patrons who are really music lovers and like
the idea of what we're doing," Brodsky says. We can count
on them for support every time. We also get some grants, partly
from the state. And we have fund-raising events during the
season. They don't bring in that much money, but help to get
the name out.
"We don't have a big budget; it's about $100,000. We want
to keep it that way. When you have a very big budget, it ends
up swallowing you up. We're in the red, but we hope eventually
to break even. If the ticket sales are good, we will be OK."
Attendance was anything but sizable at the first two festivals;
the level of enthusiasm, however, has been extraordinary.
And word has been spreading. There's a good chance that WLRN
Channel 17 will make a documentary about this year's festival,
which could be picked up by other PBS stations across the
country. (As of last week, $20,000 of a $25,000 budget for
that documentary had been raised.)
Although festival events have been confined to Miami Beach,
piano fans have turned out in good numbers, for an annual
fund-raiser at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art. Indeed,
response has been so positive there that Brodsky is planing
a smaller version of the festival next year in the Broward
Center's Amaturo Theatre.
For the 2000 festival, Brodsky decided on an unusual approach
to one of the expenses involved. "We are paying every pianist
the same amount - $3,000," Brodsky says. "It's all we can
afford. But we also cover travel and hotel expenses. Freddy
makes much more than that, but he accepted the invitation
anyway. For someone like Denis, who lives on much, much less
in Russia, this is still a lot of money."
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