Charisse Baldoria

Pianist, Composer, Writer

Prize-winning pianist Charisse Baldoria has performed on five continents and draws upon her Southeast Asian and Hispanic heritage in her music. Her newest album, Godowsky in Asia, features the complete Java Suite and other Asia-inspired works. Gamelan on Piano presents world-premiere recordings of works by Filipino composer Ramon P. Santos, and other composers inspired by Southeast Asian gong-chime traditions. Evocación showcases music inspired by flamenco and tango. She has collaborated with dancers, visual artists, performance artists, and musicians from various traditions.

As a composer, her works have been performed around the US and abroad. Her song cycles and solo piano compositions draw from literature, improvisation, jazz, Latin music, popular music, gamelan, and Western styles.

A finalist of the DISQUIET Literary Prize in nonfiction, her prose and poetry appear or are forthcoming in CutBank, Passengers, The Good Life Review, Windmill: The Hofstra Journal of Literature & Art, and others.

Albums

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Godowsky in Asia

New release

In 1923, virtuoso pianist-composer Leopold Godowsky visited the island of Java during a concert tour around Asia. Fascinated by Javanese music, culture, and landscapes, he composed the monumental Java Suite, a suite of 12 movements for solo piano. Almost a century later, during the pandemic, pianist-composer Charisse Baldoria recorded it on her 1928 Steinway L, along with other Godowsky works inspired by non-Western cultures.

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Gamelan on Piano

"Rarely has the piano’s staggering range of sonic texture been so aptly explored as pianist Charisse Baldoria does on this most unique project." (Morning Call)

"Impressive, sensitive performances…" (Fanfare)

Inspired by the gong-chime music of Indonesia and the Philippines, this album features works for solo piano and chamber music by composers from Europe, North America, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Includes the music of Debussy, Godowsky, Lou Harrison, Colin McPhee, Gareth Farr, and the world premiere recording of Philippine National Artist Ramon P. Santos' Gong-An suite (world premiere).

Sample album here

Evocación

"…Her playing of standard works is equal to that of the artists who have preceded her…" (Fanfare)

"Like Yuja Wang, Baldoria is petite but possessed of a strong, confident technique…" (Fanfare)

Evocación is a summoning of passion, memory, and the imagination. From Falla's flamenco fantasy to Piazzolla's intoxicating tangos, from Albéniz' virtuoso portraits of Spain to Scarlatti and Buencamino's Spanish and Argentine transformations, this album of dance and song seeks to evoke time and place, memory and experience--both real and imagined.

Live Performances

Alchemy (Orlando performance) (Denise Levertov Songs) by Charisse Baldoria; Jordan Markham, baritone

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Alchemy (Denise Levertov Songs), a song cycle by Charisse Baldoria

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Piano, Poetry, Drawing, Dance: Music by Debussy, Santos, and Farr. Charisse Baldoria, piano

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