Bergmann Duo, piano
Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos
Elizabeth and Marcel Bergmann have been performing together as a duo since 1989. They studied with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hannover and with Jean-Eudes Vaillancourt at the Université de Montréal.
The duo received first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Caltanissetta, Italy, and were laureates of The 4th Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition.
In 1993 they became members of the young artists’ roster of Yehudi Menuhin-Live Music Now. Their recitals and concerts with orchestra have taken them to many parts of the world, including the United States, Italy, Germany, Holland, Greece and Canada. The duo has appeared at the celebrated Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Banff Arts Festival, the Royal Bank Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition, the International Two Piano Symposium and Schubertiade, Miami, the Tage für neue Musik, Darmstadt, the Braunschweiger Kammermusik Podium and at the EXPO 2000, Hannover. The duo has appeared with several North American orchestras such as the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the New World Symphony and the Canticum Novum of Santa Fe.
They have made recordings for the CBC, for several stations of the ARD in Germany and for National Public Radio in the USA. The duo has made several CDs, which appear on the CordAria and Arktos labels and has recorded William Bolcom’s complete works for two pianos for Naxos. As founding members of the International Piano Quartet they had the opportunity to record Stravinsky’s Les Noces under the direction of Robert Craft at the Abbey Road Studios in London. The CD first appeared on Koch International Classics and has been re-released on Naxos.
Currently on faculty at The Mount Royal College Conservatory in Calgary, Elizabeth and Marcel have also been involved in various musical activities at The Banff Centre for the Arts and in 2004/2005, served as Artistic Directors of The Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition and Foundation in Miami. They are members of the Calgary based group Land’s End Chamber Ensemble , recipients of the 2005 and 2006 Western Canadian Music Awards for Outstanding Classical Recording. Committed to supporting the production of new Canadian repertoire, the duo has commissioned and premiered several works by Canadian composers such as Allan Gordon Bell and John Abram. Their extensive repertoire ranges from the baroque to the contemporary and includes numerous own arrangements and compositions.
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