Turatti Bottacci Concerti  Enterprises

      Our city of Plano and  neighboring cities have one of

the largest concentrations of young music students in the state. 

                   To them our work is dedicated.

 I remember vividly the monthly concert at the municipal theater in my home town, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The expectation, the careful attire mandated from my parents and the magic of listening to the National Symphonic Orchestra. They played for us and talked to us, children and adolescents, students of music or not.  There I heard for the first time the name Prokofieff and could never forget it since then.  "Peter and the Wolf" remains vivid in my mind: a language lesson, the language of music. At home, the lengthy Sunday lunches were spiced by Neapolitan songs, Italian operatic arias and dances like the tarantellas. Memories of our grand parents completed the joy.    We had no possibility of being what we wished, a pianist. Those days were not plentiful enough to allow the choice.  So, through the years, we nurtured the desire of working to help the dreams of our successors in this world to come true.  It is not a matter of wealth but of persistence. This chapter of the book takes us to our present old age, and like a grandfather, wanting to share our life stories and experiences with the young.

        The non-profit status of Turatti Bottacci Concerti

                      Enterprises is in progress.

Our guest artists:

Stefano Coccon, from Tortona (Italy), took a brilliant Degree in Piano in 1987 at the National Conservatory of Music Antonio Vivaldi in Alessandria and subsequently attended the course of Didactics of Music.  

As a teacher and performer  he  collaborated  with  the management and the teachers of the National Conservatory in the production of one of the composer G. Guanti’s works  “L’arcobaleno salvato “. 

He attended several specialization courses for piano, and was awarded a grant as the best performer from the Troisième cours de perfectionnement musical at the Centre International des Arts et Loisirs in Guillestre (France). 

He has performed as soloist and in several chamber groups in Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain and England, receiving both public and critical acclaim.   He had television appearances on local and national networks, including “RAI, Radiotelevisione Italiana”, the “Italia 7 group” and, in 2008, “SKY” with the baritone Massimiliano Fichera.

Playing in the piano four-hand category he was twice awarded the first Prize at the “International J. Brahms Competition” in Acqui Terme (Italy) in 2002 e 2003. He was a member of the jury for the same competition in 2006.  Playing four hands he was the principal performer in a national television special music program and he was also interviewed by Radio Milano Classica. Prestigious associations including the “Loggione” of the Teatro alla Scala and the “La Società dei Concerti” at the Conservatory in Milano have also  invited him to perform.  

In 2002 Stefano recorded chamber music from the contemporary composer Angelo Jilmar Romani. It is available as a CD from Stradivarius, the leading Italian records producer.

In 2003 he performed with the soprano Cristina Vera-Diaz at the Centre Phoenix in Fribourgh (Switzerland) invited by the Paraguayan Embassy.

He presently teaches at the “Lorenzo Perosi” Music Academy in Tortona and is in charge of the Classical Music Department. Stefano Coccon continues to perform as his schedule permits .

Ms. Biliana Dimitrova Johnsen started playing the piano at the age of five. Her first teacher was her mother, famous Bulgarian pianist Jenny Petrova. Biliana graduated from the "Lubomir Pipkov" National Music School, in her hometown of Sofia, Bulgaria.She received her Bachelor of Piano Performance degree from the "Pancho Vladigerov" Conservatory in Sofia, studying with Professor Milena Mollova. 

        Ms. Dimitrova then came to the United States to further her music education.She received her Masters of Piano Performance and Pedagogy at Baylor University where she studied under Krassimira Jordan, Baylor's artist in-residence.

In addition to being an excellent teacher, Biliana has proven her mastery of performance as demonstrated by the numerous prizes she has won:

First Prize at the 1992 "Young Music Talents" Piano Competition in Sofia, Bulgaria; Second Prize at the 1994 "Pantcho Vladigerov" International Piano Competition in Shumen, Bulgaria;  and finalist at the Baylor University Concerto Competition.

In 1997, Biliana was invited to participate in the National Festival "New Bulgarian Music." She also has recorded with the Bulgarian National Radio and has performed as a soloist with major orchestras in Bulgaria.

Biliana received the 1999-2000 Outstanding Graduate Student special award from the Piano Faculty at Baylor University for Excellence in Piano Performance.

After getting married in 2004 she moved to Dallas. Currently she teaches privately at her studio in North Dallas. She is cherished by her students for her dedication to motivating them in the pursuit of excellence through progressive and methodic practice.

Her dedicated professional, jovial and energetic personality are a rush of fresh air for her students.

She is also Head of the Piano Department of Richland College and is the accompanist for all of Richland College 's choirs.

Biliana finds herself in demand as an adjudicator, accompanist, soloist, and with her chamber music group, the Bastien Trio. She is an active member in several professional music teacher organizations and is the third vice president of the Junior Pianist Guild.

Clark Griffith was born into a musical family and early recognized as a born talent. He spontaneously began playing piano at age four.

…”my first instruction came from the a cappella congregational singing in church, my father’s guitar playing, and my mother’s dogged insistence that I learn to read music”... CG.  

Later teachers included Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff, Steven De Groote, and Rayna Barroll-Aschaffenburg.

A product of the public school system through grade 12, he twice won the Phoenix Symphony Guild’s Young Musicians Competition and thereby snagged scholarships to summer programs at NAU Summer Music Camp (1975-77), Eastern Music Festival (1978) and Tanglewood (1979, 1981 and 1982). 

As a senior in high school, Mr. Griffith won the secondary division of the National Young Artists Competition, sponsored by the Midland-Odessa Symphony & Chorale, and was one of twelve high school pianists selected to compete in the first Seventeen Magazine/General Motors National Concerto Competition.

Mr. Griffith was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music as a composition student of David Loeb and also studied accompanying there with Vladimir Sokoloff.  When Mrs. Griffith inquired about what she could do to enhance young Clark’s composition career, his teacher answered:

 …” the best we can do for him is to leave him alone:  he already has it all”.

Time has proven his teacher correct on his evaluation of little Clark.   His numerous compositions and transcriptions continue to expand and appear in his repertoire and the repertoire of his pianist friends.

Mr. Griffith served as choral accompanist and orchestral pianist for the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in the late 1980s. 

In 2007, Mr. Griffith was awarded Third Prize in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, also earning recognition for Best Performance of a Work from the Baroque Era.

The cadenza for the Mozart Concerto you will hear today was composed specially for this performance and  a premiere by Mr Coccon and Mr Griffith.