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TALENT SEARCHES
To discover the talent, Brodsky does a lot of sleuthing, but
many of her pianists are touted to her by their peers -- the
festival's participants. Lifschitz, for example, recommended
Denis Burstein, a pianist-composer who at 22, a couple of
years ago, became the youngest faculty member in the history
of Moscow's Gneissen School for prodigious geniuses, where
Yevgeny Kissin was nurtured.
Burstein was such a provocative festival recitalist, Miami's
Temple Beth Am Concert Series signed him to play here in April.
And when violinist Dame Ida Haendel heard Ilya Itin, another
of Brodsky's festival pianists, she invited him to play sonatas
with her in Munich.
Such victories -- seeing ''her'' artists valued by others
-- is enough to spur Brodsky.
''Giselle is the original Energizer Bunny, a person who won't
take no for an answer,'' says Jack, her favorite espresso
maker and her Peruvian-born husband of 28 years, adding ``I
would have thrown in the towel on this project already two
years ago. But she wouldn't.''
Then again, Brodsky comes from sturdy, undeterrable stock.
''My parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland who immigrated
to Bolivia, where I was born after the war,'' she explains.
``I took piano lessons and was always playing at home. But
because I liked the sciences and was a high school valedictorian,
perhaps my family thought I'd go into medicine or something
like that. So, when I was 17 and told my parents I wanted
to study piano in New York they were shocked.''
But Brodsky didn't miss a beat. She enrolled at the Manhattan
School of Music, earned a degree, but faced with stiff competition
on stage decided she'd be better off teaching.
''I knew I wasn't good enough to be a touring pianist, but
I also wanted to teach a method that made sense,'' she remembers.
So she studied with Dorothy Taubman of Brooklyn, whose technical
approach is renowned for naturalness and fluency.
Returning to La Paz in the early '70s, Giselle met Jack on
a trip to Peru, they married, had three children (now in their
20s), and moved to Miami in the early '80s, where she built
up a studio of more than 40 students.
FESTIVAL FOCUS
Today she still teaches about 15 pianists. But the festival
has become her prime passion.
''This year, we're going to have our first concerto evening
-- a Mozart concerto program,'' she says.
Florida Philharmonic concertmaster Igor Gruppman will conduct
a chamber orchestra for Anderszewski, Libetta and De Maria's
piano concertos. Also, Anderszewski, whose sister, Dorota
is a violinist, will perform violin-piano sonatas with her.
There will be a symposium on prodigies, introducing child
virtuosos like violinist Eugene Ugorski, pianist Deric Tay
(a reportedly phenomenal Gekic pupil), and cellist Eugene
Lifschitz. And finally there will be lectures by Grammophone
magazine critic Bryce Morrison, Rachmaninoff expert Geoffrey
Norris and others.
With all this, the picture seems complete, but not to Brodsky.
''I want the rest of the world to know what goes on here,
too'' she says, ``so we are planning to take the Miami Festival
of Discovery to Europe.''
With so many Italian pianists currently involved, the first
stop will be Italy, perhaps in 2003.
''We're in touch with people in Milan who are very excited
about the festival coming to Italy and are already looking
at castles for us near Bolzano,'' she says.
Brodsky is not talking castles in the air. Says Jack, flashing
a knowing smile, ``Believe me, if Giselle wants to do it,
she will!''
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