Misha Dacic

Listen to CD
Biography
Comments from the Italian Critics
Alan Fraser's comments
Misha's comments
Orlando Sentinel Article - Misha's American Debut
Misha on the Miami International Piano Festival Website

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Misha Datsich: Hommage à Horowitz

 
 

These sound files feature Misha Dacic's first CD recorded by Alan Fraser shortly after Misha's return from Italy where he had been studying with Lazar Berman. The entire CD was recorded in one day, and edited in 16 continuous hours of work the next day. They couldn't get the concert hall Steinway, so the session took place in the Academy recital room on a Steinway that had a string missing on the next to top C! If you listen carefully, you can hear the thin sound of this note in the Chopin Rondo! Misha put his heart and soul into this recording, and when Gisella Brodsky heard it, she flipped, invited him immediately to the Miami Festival of the Stars, and the rest, as they say, is history...

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Individual Tracks

MISHA DATSICH, Hommage à Horowitz - individual tracks

1   Medtner: Sonata Reminiscenza
2   Chopin: Rondo in E Flat Major
3   Mozart-Volodos: Turkish March
4   Scarlatti: Sonata in A minor
5   Scarlatti: Sonata in G major
6   Liszt-Horowitz: 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody
7   Chopin: Mazurka in C sharp minor
8   Bizet-Horowitz: Carmen Variations
9   Horowitz Waltz (fragment)

Recorded at the Art Academy of Novi Sad July 28 2002

recording engineer, coach, producer and digital editor: ALAN FRASER

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Biography

Miroslav Dacic (pronounced "Datsich") was born in Nish, Serbia in 1978, and first became established in the public eye when at age 11 he performed Haydn’s D major concerto under noted Yugoslav conductor Mladen Jagusht. By this time he had already decided to dedicate his life to piano, and was enrolled in the class of J. Kerkovitch at the Nish elementary music school. He completed only his first two years of music secondary school under the tutelage of D. Atchimovitch before enrolling in 1994 in the class of Prof. Kemal Gekich at the Art Academy of the University of Novi Sad, where he also worked extensively with Alan Fraser.

He has numerous first prizes from various competitions, such as Yugoslav regional piano competitions in 1988, ‘89 and ’91, the First Piano Competition in Novi Sad Yugoslavia in 1992,  and the Yugoslavia Competition for Young Pianists in 1993 and ‘94. Here in 1993, the fiftieth anniversary of Rahmaninov’s death, he also won a special first prize for the best interpretation of works by that composer. As well in 1993 he won the silver medal and another special prize for the best performance of a Rahmaninov work at the International Piano Competition in Novi Sad. In 2002 he won top honours at the Premio Silvio Bengalli Competition for Pianists in Piacenza, Italy.

In addition to winnig many competitions and awards within his native Yugoslavia, Misha was and the youngest competitor at the 1996 Liszt Competition in Budapest. His appearance there prompted Lazar Berman, a member of the jury, to invite Misha to the Music Institute of Imola, Italy, where he studied under Berman from 1997 - 2003. In Italy he has performed regularly in cities such as Milan, Venice, Messina, Syracuse, Stresa and Modena, and his 2002-2003 season included cities such as Milan in October 2002 and Bologna in February 2003. He was invited to play at the Festival in Lecce, Italy in July 2003 and at the Martha Argerich Festival, in Bologna, in June of that year.

In the summer of 2002, Misha and Alan Fraser went into the studio at the Art Academy of Novi Sad to make a demo CD. In only 6 hours of recording and an intensive 18-hour editing session the next day, they came up with the material found on Alan Fraser's mp3.com sound file page.

Later that year Gisella Brodsky, Director of the Miami International Piano Festival, listened to that recording with tears in her eyes and immediately invited Misha to make his American debut at her Festival. On the basis of this appearance at the Miami International Festival of New Artists in May 2003, he was invited to study at the University of Miami, also under full scholarship. he now lives in Miami and continues to study with Alan Fraser.

 
Excerpts from the Italian press:

“The young thoroughbred plays Schubert with a poetry matched by very few pianists, and his passionate temperament brought the drama of Rachmaninoff to life in all its splendid glory.”

“In his Schumann the simultaneous wild and poetic aspects of his performance fascinated and seduced.”

Russian pianist Naum Starkman has this to say: “Misha Datsich is a pianist with a great future, one that will make the people of Yugoslavia proud.”

Alan Fraser talks about his work with Misha Datsich:

The first time I heard Misha he was playing Chopin's slow elegaic Etude Op. 25 #7 in the recital room at our Academy. He was still in his teens, had just arrived from his home town of Nish in South Serbia, and he played that etude like I've never heard it before or since. Such heart, such poetry, such intensity of tragic, inner emotion, all done with a technical perfection that astounded the ear. Consummate orchestration, the voices speaking to each other, everything in place. He was just a boy, but Chopin's soul was in the room with us!

Later on we worked regularly, and it was fascinating to see how he would  'drink' each new concept in, absorb it and integrate it into his process of musical and pianistic maturation. Interesting to see how that young, inspired fire submitted to the harnessing process necessary to artistic development. Like all of us he reveres Horowitz, and at times listened to the Master's recordings obsessively. At times you hear a similarity of phrasing, or of sound. People have accused him of imitating the old man, but I feel otherwise. If you tread a similar path, arrive at similar musical and pianistic solutions because of an artistic image that lives in you, waiting to be fulfilled, it is not imitation. Emulation in the best sense of the word means to strive for similar artistic heights, and to submit to a similar process of refinement on order to reach them. Misha plays the way he plays because that fire exists in him - the genuine article, unique and authentic.

Misha writes,

“My formative years at the Art Academy of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia were crucial in my development not only pianistically but artistically and personally. My first teacher, Kemal Gekich made severe demands on me, and it was Alan Fraser’s perceptive, incisive and brilliant mind which in many cases gave me the key to fulfilling my teacher’s directives. He opened up a previously unknown world of technical possibilities for me, and he also activated in me a sense of personal relationship to the composers whose music I play. His coaching in the concert hall provided invaluable knowledge of acoustics. He taught me the many radical adjustments to technique and musical conception necessary to make the piano sound well in a large space.”

 AVENTURA -- His first recording was made in secret, in an empty concert hall in Serbia, while playing an old piano that hadn't been tuned in 45 years. Still, when Giselle Brodsky slipped in his demo CD and settled into the leather couch where she has listened to hundreds of recordings during the past six years, she knew right away: Misha Dacic would be invited to play in the Miami International Piano Festival's Discovery Series beginning Wednesday. So what if he was washing dishes in an Italian café. So what if nobody had ever heard of him.

"When I heard him play, I had tears because he's got nothing," Brodsky said. "No recordings. No videos. No DVDs. Yet this is natural talent. You cannot practice 10 hours a day to play the way this kid plays."

Such judgments have served the noted piano teacher well since she set out six years ago to create a festival with the lofty mission of discovering, promoting and supporting the great masters of the keyboard emerging in this generation. The naysayers shook their heads. They warned of pitfalls and challenges. Classical music is so homogenized, so predictable, so safe, today. Only the big "brand names" sell. Mold-breakers can't make it. Yet six years later, the recital series is succeeding beyond most expectations, becoming a premier showcase and launchpad for emerging and established pianists on the brink of stardom. And even with disappointingly small audiences -- the recitals rarely draw more than 400 -- it has become a magnet for distinguished scholars, critics, lecturers, filmmakers and recording labels.

"It's such a surprise!" said Matthew Gurewitsch, a critic for The New York Times. "The quality of the artists is so high, yet all of them come to Miami as virtual unknowns."

But not for long. Consider this:

Yugoslavian pianist Kemal Gekic gave such a stunning performance at his 1999 festival debut that Florida International University appointed him its artist in residence.

After several festival performances, Polish-Hungarian Piotr Anderszewski won the prestigious 2002 Gilmore Artist award, a $300,000 prize bestowed on a pianist deemed worthy of a global career.

At his festival debut, Italian Francesco Libetta caught the ear of filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon. Now, Monsaingeon, who has directed acclaimed documentaries about modern-day musical geniuses, is making a movie about Libetta.

Video Artists International, a classical-music label dedicated to preserving past performances, expanded its focus after hearing recordings from earlier festivals. Today, VAI is the official recording label for the Miami International Piano Festival, giving its performers yet another showcase.

"I've been in music a long time, and I know good music when I hear it," explained VAI President Ernie Gilbert. "What is common to the people Giselle brings to Miami is depth. She can sort out the facile technicians from the real musicians -- those who have depth of feeling and understanding as opposed to fast finger work."

Norman Lebrecht, music columnist of London's Evening Standard and author of 10 books on music, agrees: "Too much music-making is homogenized and left in the hands of competition winners who surrendered their individuality in exchange for a safe career," Lebrecht said. "Giselle has gone for quirkier, dangerous artists who are not afraid to fail. The result is often incandescent."

Support group

Sitting in her north Miami-Dade apartment, Brodsky's own radiance grows as she talks about the growing prestige of the festival, which is about to make its first foray outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties. On July 9, the festival moves to the Baroque city of Lecce, Italy, for 10 days of concertos, recitals and lectures. But to Brodsky, 55, it's not the success of the festival that delights her. It's the success of the artists. After all, nurturing them, promoting them, watching their careers bloom rather than fade, is what drove her to pursue a dream rooted in her own experience at the Manhattan School of Music.

"When I was in school, there were so many incredibly gifted pianists but after a few years they disappeared," Brodsky said. "Nobody knows what happened to them. I realized then that when you find that kind of talent you really need a support group. You need to really back those people up. Otherwise, they disappear."

Initially, she and her husband, Jack, a successful businessman, aided her struggling musician friends in their own way. The couple would help one pay for lessons and another with a down payment on a piano. But it was never enough. "Like a drop of water," Brodsky said. Then in 1995, Brodsky attended the Chopin competition in Miami, and was appalled when the favorite, Venezuelan Gabriela Montero, placed fourth. A tearful Montero told Brodsky she had no intention of competing in the international Chopin competition in Poland, but Brodsky encouraged her, eventually prevailing. Montero returned from Poland triumphant, a second-place winner with a $15,000 prize. But within a year, the money was gone, and so was the buzz about her. "So winning this important competition meant nothing," Brodsky said. "It did nothing for her career."

Brodsky decided to create a foundation that would nurture and promote the "great performing artists" of the future. In 1997, after gathering in the Brodskys' living room for a private Montero concert, about 20 music lovers launched Patrons of Exceptional Artists to support her and other pianists. Then, in collaboration with the Community Concert Association, the nonprofit organization decided to stage the first Miami International Piano Festival the following year. Today, it operates on a $250,000 budget, derived from donations and grants. "I said to my husband, 'OK, we have this interesting foundation. We have this amazing mission, but what good is it if we don't show the talent?' " Brodsky recalled. "He told me I was nuts."

Frank Cooper, a music professor at the University of Miami, had similar thoughts. He thought a festival that sought to promote extraordinary talent would fail because managers who promote classical musicians today prefer to represent what Cooper calls 'interchangeable soloists.' "So if soloist A can't play a Tchaikovsky concert with the Paducah Orchestra, they can fly in soloist B and there won't be one bit of difference," Cooper said. "Giselle doesn't go for that kind of musician so I was afraid it was beyond impossible. But she proved me wrong. Her tenacity won."

An ear for virtuosos

The daughter of Polish Holocaust survivors, Brodsky comes from tenacious lineage. Born and raised in Bolivia, she was expected to go to medical school but shocked her parents by insisting on pursuing her passion -- piano -- which she began playing at 8. But after 12 years as a concert pianist, Brodsky recognized her own limitations and decided she could have a bigger impact teaching. Today, she prides herself on having an ear that can pick out virtuosos instantly -- an essential talent now that she receives two or three CDs or videos a week from pianists or managers hoping for a coveted invitation to the festival. Though performers are chosen by committee with stringent standards, Brodsky is the initial screener, listening to every offering -- if only for a moment.

More often than not, though, she hears of artists the same way the world is hearing about her festival: by word of mouth. That's how she "discovered" Gekic, the Yugoslavian pianist who despite enormous success in Europe and Japan, was largely unknown in the United States until his 1999 debut at the Miami festival. Scheduled to play only hours after NATO bombs fell on the Serbian city of Novi Sad, where he taught piano at the university for 16 years, Gekic almost canceled. He didn't think he could perform. But, he said, he did it for Brodsky -- and electrified the concert hall. Now, as artist in residence at FIU, Gekic is happy to share the nurturing environment of the festival. It was he who told Brodsky about the most gifted student he ever taught in Novi Sad, a young man named Misha Dacic, who fled the former Yugoslavia during the war and washed dishes to make ends meet while studying piano in Italy.

Returning home last summer, Gekic ran into Dacic and after midnight the pair sneaked into Novi Sad's concert hall. There, with Dacic playing an old, out-of-tune piano, they recorded the CD that would bring tears to Brodsky's eyes. Nine months later, on Thursday, the 24-year-old Dacic is set to make his American debut -- at the proving grounds of the Miami International Piano Festival. And he's looking forward to breaking the constraints of conventionalism he felt in school.

"I was playing differently from other students -- with too much freedom maybe -- and it went against all their rules," Dacic said. "With Giselle, it's just the contrary."

Maya Bell can be reached at mbell@orlandosentinel.com or 305-810-5003.

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