In concert: Pianist Mirianela Santurio

Marianela Santurio, the renowned Cuban-American pianist, demonstrates her diverse artistry in a concert celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month this weekend. The concert, at Freeport Memorial Library on Sunday, features works by Cuban composers not often heard by American audiences.

Santurio, a passionate interpreter of contemporary music, has won the admiration of Cuban composers with whom she had the pleasure of collaborating and premiering their work worldwide. These include the compositions of Alfredo Diez Nieto, Marco Rizo, Tania Leon, Danilo Aviles, Olga de Blanck, Maria Emma Botet, and Alejandro Garcia Caturla. These composers’ works have been brought to life with Santurio’s artistic insight.

Sunday’s concert will include the music of Mateo Albeniz, Enrique Granados and Federico Mompou, three contrasting composers from Spain. The Chopin Ballade #1 and Brahms Suite Op. 118 are also in the program for the afternoon. “And of course, from my native Cuba I will play a Dance Suite by the female Cuban composer, Olga de Blanck,” Santurio said.

“I love to share the music of the classical composers with my audience,” she said. “I enjoy performing the music of the great European composers and sharing with the audience an overview of the time period surrounding the lives of the composers, along with a few historic events, which then makes the concert a more picturesque and informative event. I always interject one or two lesser known composers in my programs, surprising the listeners with a fact or two about them and they welcome and appreciate the novelty.”

An exponent of the Spanish classical masters, Santurio has received high praise for her interpretations of Granados, Albeniz and rarely performed masterpieces such as the Chopin Variations by Mompou.

Santurio is a great believer in the words of Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau: “We never stop learning; our life is a fountain of knowledge that must be continuously fed.”