Music:

Danzon Legrand Alen/Villaverde

Chopin Piano Sonata No. 2 Op. 35

Barber Sonata Op. 26

Add to My Profile | More VideosChopin, Etude Op. 10 No. 4

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Albeniz, Corpus Christi en Sevilla

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Sounds Like: Charleston City Paper, Lindsay Koob, May 9th, 2007
Another fab finale, on April 17, ended Enrique Graf's International Piano Series. We heard one of our own: a brilliant young Cuban pianist, William Villaverde, who came to the College to study with Graf six years ago. He and I became good friends, and he performed often at Millennium. He graduated two years ago, and went on to grad school in Texas. At his wedding, I took photos and tried not to cry. How do you play the critic for somebody you think of almost like an adopted son? Sure, William played Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and his countryman Ernesto Lecuona, all with terrific skill and spirit. But I knew he'd arrived as a finished artist when I heard him play American icon Samuel Barber's piano sonata — a piece that I first heard him play in my classical room, three years ago — and then it was very much a work in progress. It's one of those near-impossible pieces that can take years to master. But there was no doubt that he'd conquered it here — and I was so proud I almost teared up again. It's so great to watch talented musicians grow up.

Review (in spanish):
Diario de Leon, Espana. 19 de Julio de 2006
"...La apoteosis del curso llego de la mano del director siciliano Paolo Carbone junto al marvilloso pianista cubano William Villaverde, alumnos directos de Aprea, el primero y de Achucarro, el segundo. Fue tal la compenetracion entre ambos, la seguridad en el podio de Carbone, que no dejo de marcar cada nota, cada matiz, cada tension, con una gestualidad arrebatadora por su limpieza, metiendo el brazo en su preciso momento para expresar las tensiones a las que Liszt sometio este maravilloso concierto para piano y orquesta No. 1 que pocas veces se ve y se escucha algo parecido ni de la mano de los mas grandes. Villaverde no toco, disecciono cada uno de los cuatro movimientos y fraseo, expuso y recreo hasta conseguir una de las mejores lecturas de las que este cronista tiene memoria por la frescura y vitalidad que otorgo a toda su exposicion, equilibrada, brillante y cristalina. El resultado: un Auditorio puesto en pie que no cesaba de gritar, patalear, vitorear a tan excelentes interpretes. Algo para repetir, apoyar y consolidar."

Charleston City Paper, February 19, 2003
Unforgettable
CofC pianist wins competition and wows audiences By Fernando Rivas
Recently William Villaverde, a Cuban piano student in the College of Charleston's music department, won the regional level in the Music Teachers National Association piano competition held in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Now he is slated to compete at the national level with six other pianists, chosen from across the United States, also regional winners, in March, in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the national prize. To arrive at the national level in the prestigious MTNA competition piano students must enter and win at the state level, then move to the regional level. Villaverde did that over the past few months winning first the South Carolina competition then the Southeast Regional competition. He did so with a repertoire of difficult compositions, including the uncompromising Samuel Barber sonata with which he finds deep identification.The Sonata, premiered by Horowitz in Havana, Cuba (Villaverde's birthplace), in the late 1940s stands as a masterpiece in 20th century piano literature. Villaverde, who also identifies with the legendary Russian performer, has tackled some of the repertoire in that pianist's formidable arsenal, including the famous Stars and Stripes encore transcription, which almost seems to need a three handed pianist for proper execution. The 24-year-old Villaverde, who discovered the piano as a child during a school trip to the famous Caturla Conservatory, studied in Cuba principally with composer/pianist Andres Alen. The story of how Villaverde, a Cuban born immigrant, came to be in the College of Charleston is a fascinating tale. Jack Tate, a patron of the arts from Greenville who also provides scholarships to artists, sought to help the Cuban Symphony by shipping much needed musical instruments to Havana. Enrique Graf, head of the piano division at the College of Charleston's music department, decided to send one of his best students, Roberto Berrocal, on that same trip to scout for talent for the college. Jorge Luis Prats, the artistic director of the Cuban Symphony Orchestra and a piano virtuoso in his own right, steered Berrocal to Villaverde, Alen's pupil, and to Fabiana Claure, an American-born Bolivian pianist also studying in Cuba. Both gave their performance tapes to Berrocal and subsequently both impressed Enrique Graf enough to receive full Tate scholarships to the College of Charleston?s music department. But Villaverde's departure from the island was not easy. He had to undergo the usual difficulties of any artist traveling abroad from Cuba. Castro's regime looks with suspicion upon all such travels because so many artists and sports figures have defected to other countries. But in the end the Cuban government did not want to stand in Villaverde's way and granted him permission to leave the country. Villaverde looks back on his youth in Cuba with nostalgia. He began piano lessons with his first teacher, Virginia de la Osa, at age eight and he recalls how difficult it was for his family "six people living in one apartment with a piano in the living room. Whenever I practiced everything would stop," he says. "My mother would tell everybody to keep quiet. She would tell the neighbors it was time to leave." No one in his family was a musician, but they knew William was special, and they made sure he could get where he wanted to go. His brother now jokes with him about how difficult it was to have a childhood in that apartment. That piano was everything. When Villaverde met his second teacher, Andres Alen, he knew that music would be his life. Alen, a performer who moves comfortably between the worlds of jazz and classical music was Villaverde's true mentor. "He's one of the best musicians in Cuba," the young pianist affirms enthusiastically "He is absolutely incredible." Alen, who played with Dizzy Gillespie during the jazz trumpeter's famous trip to Cuba, taught Villaverde the sense of eclecticism that is at the core of the young pianist's style and is what sets him apart. During his time here, Villaverde has already accrued several important credentials such as winning the 2002 Arthur Fraser Young Artists Competition in Columbia, South Carolina, and the Audience Choice Award in the same competition. As far as the forces that will determine his future, Villaverde looks to the conservatories of the north in Boston and New York, the meccas of all aspiring classical concert artists. He plans to finish his studies at the College of Charleston and hopes to move into the stratospheric levels of classical performance, to obtain a post graduate degree from Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin, Mannes School, New England Conservatory, or any of the hallowed musical establishments. For now Villaverde is studying with Enrique Graf, a brilliant pianist with a distinguished career who has become Villaverde's new mentor and for whom he has the greatest admiration. In the meantime, when Villaverde offers a recital in Charleston, it should not be missed. The experience will be, at the very least, unforgettable. ************************************************************ ****

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