Ramon Salvatore, Piano

Biography

Described by the Chicago Tribune as "one of Chicago's most important
musical ambassadors," and hailed by The New York Times for his "bravura
performances" and "splendid audacity" in programming, Ramon Salvatore
(1944-1996) commanded national attention as a pianist who combined
rhythmic panache and warm lyric cogency with a pioneering spirit.
Praised for his poetic standard repertory performances, he also won
acclaim as a musical trailblazer, exploring still-undiscovered American
terrain: the virtuoso piano music of our nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.

A recipient of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
in 1990, Mr. Salvatore presented a three-concert series titled
"American Piano Music in the Grand Tradition" at New York's Weill
Recital Hall, which he repeated at the Chicago Cultural Center. In that
series, Salvatore uncovered over 120 years of masterly keyboard works
that reflected international traditions, yet spoke with a distinctively
American voice. Included were such diverse composers as Amy Beach, Paul
Bowles, Aaron Copland, John Corigliano, Arthur Foote, John La Montaine,
Hunter Johnson, Robert Palmer, Philip Ramey, and Wallingford Riegler.
Most of the music from that landmark series has been recorded and
enthusiastically reviewed on the Cedille and Premier labels. Mr.
Salvatore also presented recitals at the National Gallery in
Washington, New York's Merkin Hall, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, the Dame
Myra Hess Series in Chicago and Los Angeles, and Detroit's Cranbrook
Series, and concertized widely abroad, giving recitals in Spain,
Morocco, Scotland, and England.