| Kumaran Arul Pianist Kumaran Arul has performed widely through the United States and Europe to great acclaim. Recent performances have taken him to New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco and overseas to Hungary and England. Critics have called him a “unique musical visionary” and he is gaining attention for his powerful and individualistic interpretations. Arul is a frequent performer in the San Francisco bay area where he lives, and is an active chamber musician, in particular as duo pianist with George Barth and Erika Arul as well as performances with cellist Christopher Costanza of the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Arul’s involvement with new music includes the 2006 premiere of a work by David Evan Jones, and the premiere of a work by Paul Nauert in February 2008. Recent concerto appearances include return engagements with the AV Symphony and Tehachapi Symphony. In addition to his performing, Arul teaches in the music department at Stanford University where he maintains a piano studio and coaches chamber music. His students have won numerous competitions and have performed in recital and with orchestras throughout the U.S. Among his varied musical activities, Arul is pursuing research in performance practice with a focus on the study of early recordings. His current work deals with the alternative traditions of performing classical era music on the earliest recordings and rolls with particular emphasis on the Leipzig school. Other work is on the performance aesthetics of Heinrich Schenker as evidenced in his reviews and criticism of performers. These topics will be the subject of papers he will deliver this year including at the Association for Recorded Sound Collections conference in March. In April 2007 Arul co-produced the acclaimed symposium “Reactions to the Record” at Stanford which highlighted the latest work in nineteenth and early twentienth century performance practice by performers and scholars from around the world. In May 2007, Arul was a recipient of a SICA grant to pursue further work on early recordings in conjunction with the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound. Upcoming projects in this area include articles, editing a book on early recordings, a radio program, seminars, and a 2009 symposium. Arul holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Michigan. He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and two children where he also enjoys pursuing his avid interest in birds and bird song. O1C Performances: Miriam Abramowitsch & Kumaran Arul |
