Romantic Era Pops!

Pianist Eli Kalman has performed extensively in Romania, Israel, Germany, Hungary, Japan, United States and Canada. Hailing from Romania and Israel, he was the recipient of the Paul Collins Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship for Excellence at UW-Madison. Prior to his teaching appointment at UW-Oshkosh in 2006, he has held educator positions on the piano faculty at the Center of Arts, Mizra in Israel and previously at the Lyceum of Arts, Baia Mare in Romania.

As a performer, his lifelong passion for chamber music has been featured at the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C., on “San Francisco Performances” and “Tuesday Evening Concert Series” in Virginia, on the Emmanuel Music-Schumann Chamber Series in Boston, the Connoisseur Series at Wichita State University, the Myra Hess Series in Chicago, in addition to other venues. He was an enthusiastic artist-in-residence at the Chamber Music Festival at Banff, Canada, and a guest artist for five years at the Token Creek Festival directed by celebrated American composer John Harbison.

Solo and chamber appearances have included the Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall with tubist Marty Erickson, the Krieger String Series at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts with cellist Amit Peled, soloist with the Water City Chamber Orchestra, the Sylvia Adalman Artist Recital Series at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, “Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen” live on NPR, WFMT in Chicago, Farley’s House of Pianos Series in Madison, and Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society. Since 2003, he performs frequently with Pro Arte Quartet’s inspiring cellist Parry Karp from UW-Madison in concert series within the University of Wisconsin system and other national venues.

As a recording artist, he offers works for solo piano and cello and piano by Erwin Junger (2001) and Robert Schumann’s Sonatas for Violin and Piano with violinist Rose Mary Harbison (2006) and a CD entitled “The Jewish Soul” with cellist Amit Peled from the Peabody Institute(2009). His 2015 CD entitled “Homo Ludens” celebrates new piano music by Russian-American composer-pianist and poet Lera Auerbach and his latest recording with violinist Jameson Cooper offers homage to Ottorino Respighi in a CD of his violin and piano works entitled “Nebbie” (2018). A new CD of works for horn, violin and piano in collaboration with hornist Bruce Atwell and violinist Yuliya Smead is planned for its release in late 2020 on Centaur Records.

As a scholar, Dr. Kalman’s research interests focuson neglected repertoire for strings and piano, the compositions of Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti and Israeli composer Erwin Junger, as well as on unpublished chamber works by Ottorino Respighi. His research in the field has led to the world premier publication of Respighi’s first Sonata for violin and piano (1897) published on A-R Editions/Special Publications, 2011. At the invitation of the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna (International Museum and Library of Music of Bologna) he performed in Bologna, Italy in May 2019. This performance was a celebration honoring Dr. Kalman’s contribution to the research, recording and performance of Respighi’s chamber music. The recital with violinist partner Jameson Cooper introduced their “Nebbie” CD (Centaur 2018) featuring music for violin and piano by Ottorino Respighi.

Dr. Kalman earned his Diploma in Piano Performance from the Academy of Music “G. Dima” in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.