ELENI TRAGANAS - Artist Pianist
“Hers is a soul inspired by music,” a critic of the BONNER RUNDSCHAU wrote of ELENI TRAGANAS’ appearance at the Festival of American Music in Bonn, Germany. “She performed with astonishing command and a limitless range of emotion in an overwhelmingly unique and individual style.”
Pianist & Composer ELENI TRAGANAS’ varied award-winning activities have amassed accolades from the international press and have been listed in Who’s Who in America© and other biographical publications. Born in New York City, Ms. TRAGANAS holds degrees from The Juilliard School. With postgraduate studies undertaken at the Volkwang Musikhochschule in Essen, Germany and Switzerland’s Lucerne Conservatory, her mentors have included such performing luminaries as Paul Badura-Skoda, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Nadia Reisenberg, Beveridge Webster, and Eugene List. Her innumerable appearances include recitals and lectures in Carnegie Hall, a concert which THE NEW YORK TIMES applauded for its “volatile temperament, poetic intensity, and impressive dramatic impetus,” New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall (“An impressively assured performance,” THE FINANCIAL TIMES), Berlin (“Ethereal clarity…exuberant brilliance,” BERLINER MORGENPOST), Athens, and many of the major music capitals of Europe, where she also performed under the aegis of the U.S. State Department. A guest at several international music festivals and soloist with The Israel Sinfonietta, the Athens State Orchestra, the Municipal Concerts Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles, she has recorded for EMI-Athens, WDR West German Broadcasting Co., RAI-Italy, National Radio & Television of Greece, WQXR, among others.
Her compositions have been praised by THE AMERICAN ORGANIST Magazine, and NEW YORK TIMES critic and composer Ernest Lubin called her first publication, a four-movement Baroque Suite for piano written at the age of 12, “a masterly work of absolute individuality”. Twelfth House, her novel, and Shaded Pergola, a collection of haiku with her original illustrations, has received high acclaim from the literary press, and as an award-winning fine artist, her visionary works have appeared in over 40 nationally curated museums and galleries. A legatee of the Archdiocesan Cathedral’s Inaugural Maestro Dino Anagnost Memorial Award as Artist-In-Residence, throughout her career ELENI TRAGANAS has been the grateful recipient of munificent support from enthusiastic patrons of the arts.
Rave Reviews by the International Press
“A volatile temperament. There was never any doubt about her intense involvement in the music. With uninhibited vigor ... she viewed each work as a poetic entity, displaying an impressive grasp of overall mood and dramatic impetus!”
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“An impressively assured performance”
THE FINANCIAL TIMES, LONDON
“Stunning … She’s a passionate player with great strength and control and played in exciting fashion. A real talent!”
ATHENS DAILY POST
“A very beautiful concert … ethereal clarity and poise … unfailing strength … exuberant brilliance and virtuosity. An exciting performance”
BERLINER MORGENPOST
“A true artist … Piano-playing of a high order. A Romantic pianist of the first rank with exciting drive, involvement and style, with a breathtaking technique which was always subservient to the music she was interpreting. A sparkling performance ... The enthusiastic audience gave her a standing ovation”
THE OREGONIAN
“Extraordinary technique and tonal beauty ... Impressive strength and musical assurance. A magnificent and stirring performance”
RUHR NACHRICHTEN
“Astonishing facility and ease of interpretation, exemplary command, and a refined sensibility”
ELEFTHERI ORA, ATHENS
“REMARKABLE SELF-ASSURANCE. Her performance of Scriabin’s ‘Black Mass’ Sonata was hair-raising”
WESTDEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
“SPELLBINDING (headline). Pianist ELENI TRAGANAS charmed an enthusiastic audience with her powerful, sensitive performance. Breathtaking technique ... She is without doubt an extraordinary talent”
MUENSTERISCHE ZEITUNG
”A TRULY CONSUMMATE PERFORMANCE! A pianist who wins you over with her vigorous temperament and fascinates you with the radiance of her playing, TRAGANAS is not only an astonishing virtuoso but also a musician with extraordinary finesse and sensitivity who can infuse with spirit even the most remarkably imperceptible tones. AN UNFORGETTABLE CONCERT”
I VRADINI, ATHENS
“Even beyond her enviable technical prowess, the soloist displayed elements of a fathomless musical sensitivity”
ELEFTHEROTYPIA (FREE PRESS), ATHENS
“She has an unusual preference for the Russians – Tchaikovsky, Scriabin. Her technique is big and solid, enabling her to tackle their gargantuan difficulties. But that’s not her challenge: What concerns her most is to get to the root of their deep and expressive interpretation – with passion and love”
EIKONES MAGAZINE, ATHENS
“Ranks as one of the very best interpreters on the concert circuit today. She demonstrated a truly incredible technique and a very cerebral yet intensely passionate interpretation of the works she performed. She is without doubt one of the most talented pianists appearing today, and one from whom many decades of outstanding performances can be anticipated.”
THE ATHENIAN
“Effortless mastery”
MARLER ZEITUNG
“A transcendent talent…tremendous power with a great romantic gift…A thunderous ovation!”
KREUZNACHER ALLGEMEINE
“A very successful concert by celebrated pianist ELENI TRAGANAS. Her difficult program with works by the Russian Romantics was effortlessly performed and marked by a fiery dynamism, dramatic and poetic intensity. We look forward to her next appearance”
IMERA, PATRAS, GREECE
“Complete mastery”
THE HELLENIC NEWS, NY