Tureck Bach Research Institute Tributes Rosalyn Tureck on Centenery of Her Birth Today

The Tureck Bach Research Institute will host a special celebration honoring renowned keyboard artist, scholar, and teacher Rosalyn Tureck, marking both 100 years since her birth (December 14, 1913) and 10 years since her death (July 17, 2003). Hailed as "the high priestess of Bach" and acclaimed for her uncompromisingly rigorous, intelligent and detailed performances, Tureck devoted more than six decades to performing, researching, teaching and writing about Bach's works.

The concert and commemoration will include a video retrospective, a live interview with former Tureck student and internationally acclaimed guitarist Sharon Isbin, and performances by pianist Golda Vainberg-Tatz, founder of the Tureck International Competition for Young Pianists, as well as two laureates from the 2013 competition: Athena Tsianos (age 17) and Allison To (age 12). The event takes place today, December 15, 2013 at 3:00 pm at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue (south of West 65th Street) and will be followed by a reception. Free tickets may be reserved at www.tureckbach.com.

Founded by Ms. Tureck in 1981, the Tureck Bach Institute supports research, scholarship, and an exchange of ideas about Bach. President of the Institute, Kevin Kleinmann, who will be the host for this event, initiated and oversaw Tureck's recording of the Goldberg Variations for Deutsche Grammophon in 1997 (recorded at the age of 84). He comments: "Rosalyn Tureck was a big personality, with an aura and a charisma that you could feel from a mile away. Through endless discussions with her, she taught me how to be analytical, how to achieve clarity of thought and to apply it in everything we do. There are few who could be performers and scholars to the level that she was."

Sharon Isbin edited the complete Bach lute suites for guitar with Tureck: "When you think of Rosalyn Tureck, you think of perfection, you think of magnificent rhythm, an ear that is beyond that of most mortal human beings. You think of someone who has delved beneath the surface to the depths of musicality and scholarship that we cannot even conceive of, in order to produce what she did... she was a goddess."

Rosalyn Tureck was a huge influence on a generation of pianists including the more celebrated Glenn Gould, who commented that she was the only pianist whom he admired. In her obituary, The Guardian said: "What always convinces the listener is the compelling, incandescent, almost evangelical spirit that shines through [in the] detail."

For more information and to RSVP for this free, limited-seating event on December 15, see: www.tureckbach.com.