Tureck Bach Research Institute to Merge with the Curtis Institute of Music; Curtis to honor the legacy of keyboard artist, teacher, and scholar Dr. Rosalyn Tureck through special partnership; Flutist Emma Resmini of Virginia named first Tureck Bach Research Institute Fellow

“The criteria that we applied in the search to find a home for the Tureck Bach Research Institute was guided, above all, by the need to find an institution that could meet and fulfill the high standards of our founder, Dr. Rosalyn Tureck, a person who demanded and achieved excellence, intellectual rigor, and perfection in everything that she undertook,” said Tureck Bach Research Institute President Kevin Kleinmann. “Curtis was the perfect choice for us, and as a world-renowned institution of higher musical learning, it embodies all of the required criteria and vision that will enable it to carry on the goals of the Tureck Bach Research Institute.”

“Rosalyn Tureck was a truly remarkable artist and pioneer whose musical curiosity and ground-breaking, multi-faceted career set an example for our young students today,” said Curtis President Roberto Díaz. “Curtis is honored to steward the work of the Tureck Bach Research Institute and the memory of Dr. Tureck.”

To keep alive the memory of Rosalyn Tureck and honor the work of the Tureck Bach Research Institute, Curtis has established an annual fellowship to be held by a female student. The 2015–16 Tureck Bach Research Institute Fellow is Emma Resmini, a flutist from Fairfax Station, Va., who entered Curtis in 2014 and studies with Jeffrey Khaner.

Described as “a bright young prodigy” by the New York Times, Ms. Resmini has appeared as soloist with the Dallas, National, and Pittsburgh symphonies; the Laredo Philharmonic; the McLean (Va.) Orchestra; and the George Mason University Orchestra. She is a frequent performer on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage as both a soloist and chamber musician. Ms. Resmini has been selected as the 2015–16 Performance Today Young Artist in Residence from Curtis, and her performances will be broadcast later this season on nearly 300 public radio stations nationwide.

A Curtis recital featuring an all-Bach program on February 12, 2016, will be recorded and dedicated to the memory of Rosalyn Tureck. This recital marks the culmination of celebrated pedagogue Miriam Fried’s 2015–16 residency at Curtis guiding students through J.S. Bach’s inimitable sonatas and partitas for solo violin.

Curtis will also organize annual public events dedicated to Rosalyn Tureck, including an interdisciplinary symposium involving other Curtis partners, as well as leaders and innovators within and beyond the field of music. Details of the interdisciplinary symposium during the 2015–16 season will be released at a later date. Finally, Curtis has named a Tureck Practice Room in Lenfest Hall, where a bronze bust of Rosalyn Tureck by British sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein is displayed.

“I am extremely grateful and pleased that we have found the right home for the Tureck Bach Research Institute and want to thank all those at Curtis who have made this merger seamless and gratifying,” said Kevin Kleinmann. “On behalf of all members of the board of directors of the Tureck Bach Research Institute, I want to wish this merger success and am confident that through this association an ever larger number of students, faculty and the general public will discover the genius and scholarship of Dr. Rosalyn Tureck and her unique contribution to the way that we perceive, perform and listen to the music of J.S. Bach.”

ABOUT ROSALYN TURECK
Although she performed Bach on a wide variety of keyboard instruments (clavichord, harpsichord, organ, and even the Moog Synthesizer), Rosalyn Tureck’s trail-blazing performances of Bach on the piano were an inspiring influence on generations of pianists who followed. A key figure in reviving interest in Bach’s music in the 20th century, she also performed a wide spectrum of the music of her own time, including works by Aaron Copland, Luigi Dallapiccola, David Diamond, Arnold Schoenberg, and William Schuman, many of which were written for her.

A student of Jan Chiapusso and Sophia Brilliant-Liven in Chicago and Olga Samaroff at the Juilliard School, Ms. Tureck made her professional orchestra debut playing Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy and toured with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos, in performances of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. She was the first woman to conduct a subscription concert of the New York Philharmonic and she also established the Tureck Bach Players in London (1957), and produced a Bach Tri-Centennial series of six concerts in Carnegie Hall in 1985.

Throughout her life, Dr. Tureck founded societies dedicated to the research and performance of Bach’s music and taught at the Juilliard School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Columbia University, and the University of Maryland. In 1970 she was made a life fellow of St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, and in 1973 became a visiting fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford.

ABOUT THE CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC
Drawing upon 90 years of artistry, the Curtis Institute of Music pairs tradition and innovation, educating exceptionally gifted young musicians as artist-citizens who engage a local and global community through music-making of the highest caliber. Each year 175 students come to Curtis, drawn by a tuition-free, performance-inspired learning culture. In this intimate environment, they are nurtured by a celebrated faculty and inspired by the school’s distinctive “learn by doing” approach, offering more than 200 concerts each year in Philadelphia, as well as performances around the world through Curtis on Tour.

“One of the world’s finest music academies” (BBC Culture), Curtis reaches global audiences through Curtis Performs (curtis.edu/CurtisPerforms), the school’s dedicated HD performance video site. Online music courses and Summerfest programs offer lifelong learners further ways to listen, explore, and learn. And students hone 21st-century skills through social entrepreneurship programs that bring arts access and education to the community.

The extraordinary young musicians of Curtis graduate to join 4,000 alumni who have long made music history. Each season leading orchestras, opera houses, and chamber music series around the world feature Curtis alumni. They are in the front rank of soloists, composers, and conductors and hold principal chairs in every major American orchestra. Curtis graduates are musical leaders, making a profound impact on music onstage and in their communities. To learn more, visit www.curtis.edu.