There's a moment of magic when pianist Ann Schein appears on stage… She walks in briskly, as if going to her living room… Then she sees the audience and pauses with a look of astonishment, as if to say: "But what are all of you doing here?"

…University of Colorado pianist Andrew Cooperstock… hosts the pianist for a College of Music residency that begins with a recital…  It's Schein's affinity for the great Romantic composers that prompted the CU invitation.

"This is a big birthday year!" Cooperstock says. "Both Chopin and Schumann were born in 1810, and Ann is the perfect pianist to celebrate their anniversaries."

Schein's CU residency will be of value both to students in pedagogy and performance when she teaches a master class.

"She's a great teacher; she knows how to make music alive and how to communicate."

For the final session of her residency Schein will talk about her lessons with Arthur Rubinstein, with whom she studied early in her career.

Ann Schein's CU residency is sponsored by the James L.D. and Rebecca J. Roser Visiting Artist Program.?

"The Concert Artists of Baltimore season opener was a huge success! The CAB musicians, led by Maestro Polochick were absolutely spectacular. A special thanks to the incomparable Ann Schein for a truly memorable performance. "

“The weekend musical pleasures included an all-Schumann program from the Concert Artists of Baltimore on Saturday...The program offered a neat balance of familiar and rare repertoire. Representing the familiar was the Piano Concerto, which featured the exuberant Ann Schein...[She] demonstrated more than just the chops for the concerto; she had a way of enlivening well-worn phrases, of maintaining interest as well as momentum...Schein's playing was...filled with character throughout. The pianist was attentively partnered by conductor Edward Polochick.”

“Another CD of Schumann piano music! Released late in 2010, the Schumann bicentennial year, this recording just became available this month...The CD includes the Davidsbündlertänze, Opus 6 and the Fantasie in C Major, Opus 17, two of Schumann’s greatest works...The Davidsbündlertänze pieces are filled with imaginative touches, rich colors and vivid contrasts of texture and mood...she does get to the heart of the piece. If it doesn’t convince me as thoroughly as classic performances by Cortot, Gieseking, Masselos, Ann Schein or Anto Kuerti, it’s certainly worthy of comparison.”

CD Review: Uchida plays Schumann

I’ve just spent the last 35 minutes listening to your glorious interpretation of the Rachmaninoff 3rd. I cannot express how moved I was by your willingness to share your emotion (your inclusion of those typically expressive Rachmaninoff left hand counter-melodies) along with a controlled ferocity.

Your performance should be in the lesson plan of all those pianists who manipulate/accelerate the tempos with a stunning lack of humility…or humanity. The momentum of your performance was/is NEVER in question. So much excitement, but never at the expense of the composer.

Being a listener has its rewards, especially when it is spending a bit of time in your world.

Robert Jason

Although the perfect weather kept taunting and tempting me on Sunday, I headed indoors to catch two performances. The first, in the afternoon, was the 25th season-opener for Concert Artists of Baltimore, and a most satisfying season-opener it turned out to be.

I like this group. I have ever since I came to town. Thanks to founding artistic director Ed Polochick, the ensemble can be counted on for music-making generated by intense commitment and, for want of a more technical word, joy. That's what keeps me coming back.

Having relocated this season to the Peabody campus, Concert Artists no longer enjoys the acoustical advantage of the Gordon Center, where an orchestra of under 40 can sound more like 60 and where the string tone, in particular, gains a nice bloom.

Peabody's Friedberg Hall is not quite so forgiving, and there were times on Sunday when little discrepancies in the playing by the violins stuck out.

Such blemishes really did fade, though, in light of all the expressive force onstage. The way Polochick had the orchestra charging through Prokofiev's "Classical" Symphony, for example, proved thoroughly invigorating. The familiar music took on a bracing freshness.

The orchestra also did generally supple work in Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, which featured ...

the downright legendary Leon Fleisher and his wife, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, as soloists. The duo sculpted phrases with their accustomed thoughtfulness and stylish nuance, and they enjoyed typically attentive support from Polochick.

The program was book-ended by music for voices. The choral component of Concert Artists had the stage to itself at the start in Britten's exquisite "Hymn to St. Cecilia." The group produced a warm, generally cohesive sound and, sensitively guided the conductor, sculpted eloquent phrases.

The vocal ensemble was back at the end for Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and did some effective singing in it. The orchestra, too, made a fine showing. Polochick ensured that the quirky, irresistible, piece, with its preview of things to come in the Ninth Symphony, held together. When he got the chance, he didn't hesitate to kick things into warp speed, and it paid off.

The real star, though, was Ann Schein, who tackled the assertive piano solo with a disarming combination of tonal fire power and electric phrasing. She caught the improvisatory feeling of the opening passage and continued to generate a wonderfully spontaneous mood.

So a couple of notes got away from her. So what? The pianist never lost hold of the score's exuberant spirit. That's what counted. In short, Schein shined.

Tim Smith
The Baltimore Sun
October 11, 2011 

See the whole story on The Baltimore Sun's website here.