Introduction:  Robert Wichlan, manager

About The Legacy of Germaine Pinault – Her Only Student

Dr. Ana Maria Trenchi Bottazzi

Widmung                                                                                                                                                                   Franz Liszt/Robert Schumann

Reflets dans l'eau                                                                                                                                                                               Claude Debussy

Two Etudes:  Op.25 No.2 and Op.10 No.5                                                                                                                                      Frédéric Chopin

Venezia e Napoli                                                                                                                                                                                         Franz Liszt

About The Performers

MAYU HEMMI

Mayu Hemmi, now 12 years old, was born in the Netherlands on March 1, 1994.  She began playing piano at the age of four and has been a student of Drs. Ana Maria Trench and Bruno Bottazzi of the Pinault School of Music since September 2002.  In 2003, she was invited by the Sieiro-Landolfi Music Studio to represent the Pinault School of Music in a guest performance in the Music Room at Caramoor.  Earlier that year she performed at the General Consulate of Argentina in New York for a fundraising concert sponsored by "Children Helping Children".  Mayu has performed in more than 25 concerts, including four at Carnegie Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Cami Hall, AC Piano Craft, the Rimsky Theater, and many more venues.  She also presented her First Solo Recital in New York at the age of ten.  Since she became a student of the Pinault School of Music she has been invited annually to perform at the Annual Gala Concert in New York City where only the most accomplished students of the school are invited to perform. She is now preparing her Second Solo Recital for the upcoming year. Of all the piano participants in the 2006 NYSSMA Festival, she was one of only eleven pianists chosen to perform in November 2006.

DANIELA BRACCHI

Daniela Bracchi began playing for her own amusement at the age of five.  At the age of eight, she began to study seriously with the world famous pianist Dr. Ana Maria Trenchi de Bottazzi at the Pinault School of Music in New York , with whom she remained for ten years. Ms. Bracchi has a long list of accomplishments to her credit which include: first place winner in the Italian American Competition (1992), first place winner in the Queens Symphony Orchestra's "Young Soloist Competition"(1992), and six time winner of the Leschetizky Association's "Young Gifted Peoples Competition", first place winner in The Piano Teachers Congress of New York's "Young Pianists Competition," 2 time first place winner of the "APPTA International Competition," and 2 time first place winner of the "Bartok-Kabalevsky International Competition" in Radford Virginia.  In addition, at the "Bartok-Kabalevsky Competition, she received the Marion Gray Award for best performance, first place in the Long Island Philharmonic Young Artists Competition and a performance with the Long Island Philharmonic, and first place in the junior division of the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition. Among countless recitals around the New York area including performances at Weill Recital Hall, Cami Hall, and Caramoor, Ms. Bracchi has also given solo recitals at SUNY Stony Brook, The Peabody Conservatory, and four solo recitals to capacity audiences at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, one of which includes her debut recital at age 10.  Ms. Bracchi has performed in master classes with Leon Fleisher, Gyorgy Sandor, Eteri Andjaparidze, Menahem Pressler, and Santiago Rodriguez.  In 2000 Ms. Bracchi became part of the studio of Boris Slutsky at the Peabody Conservatory at the Johns Hopkins University , obtaining a Bachelor’s degree while performing around the Baltimore-Washington area.  Daniela attended The New Millennium Piano Festival in Spain where she had the opportunity to study with Julian Martin, Blanca Uribe, Yveda Kaplinsky, Marc Durand, and Dominique Weber.  Recently Ms. Bracchi completed a Masters degree in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music under the direction of the renowned Solomon Mikowsky.  Ms. Bracchi is currently on the piano faculty at the Pinault School of Music.  She remains an active performer of classical piano repertoire, as well as chamber music.  Ms. Bracchi is also a supporter of contemporary music, performing and premiering works by up-and-coming composers.  At the present she is working toward her DMA Degree in piano at the Manhattan School of Music.  Daniela Bracchi has accepted to join the teaching staff at the Pinault School of Music - official as of November 1st, 2006

ANA MARIA TRENCHI BOTTAZZI

ANA MARIA TRENCHI BOTTAZZI, born in Buenos Aires , Argentina , was a child prodigy originally taught, beginning at age two, by her mother, the well-known Argentine pedagogue, Ana Sieiro de Trenchi. She gave her first solo recital at  age four in Buenos Aires and at age 13 went to Paris to continue her studies with famed teachers Nadia Boulanger, Yves Nat, and especially Germaine Pinault, who taught her five hours a day, seven days a week, for five years. She was awarded the Premier Prix, at age 18, from the prestigious Conservatoire National de Musique in Paris . She also studied with Argentina ’s most famous composer, Alberto Ginastera, and later with Roger Sessions and Martin Canin. At age 23, she had returned from her first around-the-world concert tour, was scheduled for a New York debut, and seemed destined for a stellar performing career when tragedy struck. A near-fatal car accident left her with major head injuries. Extensive surgery saved her life, but her physical coordina­tion was so impaired that she could hardly walk or lift a cup, let alone play the piano, and her memory was completely unreli­able. Doctors told her that she would never be able to perform again. Ms. Bottazzi returned to Argentina and, refusing to believe the doctors’ prognosis, began to slowly build her ability to play the piano. This would eventually take 13 years. In 1974, she played her long-delayed New York debut in Town Hall, receiving outstanding reviews. Her autobiography documenting this arduous courageous recovery, entitled "To Live Again", which Publishers Weekly called “an inspiring story of faith and iron will,” was published in five languages by Dodd, Mead, and Co. In 1976, Ms. Bottazzi performed at Avery Fisher Hall in New York , and to prove to herself that her memory was now intact, she allowed the audience to pick the pro­gram from a list of 100 pieces in her exten­sive repertoire. She then played it from memory, drawing ecstatic applause from the audience and raves from the critics. Since then, she has performed and given master classes and lectures all over the world - in 34 major cities in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia - in solo recitals and with orchestra, receiving high critical and audience acclaim wherever she plays. Her many performances include 17 solo recitals at Carnegie Hall. In 1992 she was honored to perform at the White House for President and Mrs. Bush and in 1993 she gave a recital at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II. Ms. Bottazzi has earned three master’s degrees and two doctoral degrees: a PhD in music from univer­sities in Argentina and the U.S. She received a second doctorate from The Juilliard School, becoming the first Latin American to earn a doctorate from that prestigious institution. She has received many awards, among them Outstanding Woman of the Year, given by the All Nations Women’s League in 1982, the United Nations’ Outstanding People From Central and South America award in 1984, and the Outstanding Hispanic Women Achievers Award, presented to her in 1993 by New York Governor Mario Cuomo.  

Ms. Bottazzi has been associated with the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and with New York Uni­versity .  She founded, together with her husband Bruno, the Germaine Pinault School of Music in Manhasset , New York , one of New York ’s finest private music schools, and she has been its director for the past 38 years. Among her numerous recordings are two of her favorite encore pieces, Encores, Volume I (1990), and Encores, Volume II (1996). In the fall, 2006, she plans to record five DVD's with recital programs. Ms. Bottazzi is in great demand as a judge for international piano competi­tions. In 1992 she established the International Piano Tape Competition, a competition judged strictly from audio and videotaped performances in which the winners receive cash prizes and share a concert at Weill Recital Hall.  Applications have been received from 68 different countries.  The sixth and last competition took place in 2003. After an entire year away from the piano, when on October 2003 she endured yet another major surgery, number 10, she began, during the season 2004 – 2005, slowly getting back to performing again.

In October 2005, Ana Maria Trenchi Bottazzi and Robert Wichlan joined forces to establish and launch the website Practice With The Masters.   Here pianists can purchase different piano pieces that are performed and explained to them on the DVD’s.  There are, in addition to these, a three part course in advanced piano technique and also one in memorization. After eleven months, Ana Maria Trenchi Bottazzi has recently completed the taping of DVD No. 500 of different works for piano. This very successful and unique enterprise, has already been selling DVD’s to all parts of the USA , Argentina , Europe, UK , Australia , South Africa , Canada , China and Hong Kong . Ms. Bottazzi can be reached for inquiries about performances or other musical events through her agent – WICHLAN MANAGEMENT.  Mr. Wichlan is also the Web Master of their new site “Practice With The Masters”. WICHLAN MANAGEMENT - management@practicewiththemasters.com 

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