MARCELA ROGGERI

Marcela Roggeri has all the qualities of the great Argentine piano tradition, as well as the zest we associate with South American artists. Born in Buenos Aires, she studied first of all with Ana Gelber, then was coached by Bruno Leonardo Gelber, who became her mentor.

Like many Argentines, Marcela Roggeri is also a great traveller. At the age of twenty-three, after a tour of Argentina and other Latin American countries, she came to Europe (Germany, Italy and France) for a first series of concerts in duet with Bruno Leonardo Gelber. Having appreciated the working atmosphere she found in Europe, she decided to move to Paris to perfect her playing. From 1992 to 1994 her base was Singapore, where she had been invited to give masterclasses, but she continued to travel all over the world, giving recitals and concerts under fine conductors, such as Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, James Judd, George Pehlivanian, Kasper de Roo, Kyung Soo Wong Mario Benzecri, Simon Blech, Pedro I. Calderon, Carlos Giraudo and Juan Carlos Zorzi. She plays with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Buenos Aires, Florida, Dortmund and Montpellier, and the Bohemian Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic.

In 2000 Marcela Roggeri gave a memorable concert with the Brazilian pianist Marcelo Bratke at the Wigmore Hall in London. The programme consisted of pieces for two pianos by Gershwin, Bernstein and Copland, 2000 being the centenary of Copland’s birth. The critics were unanimous in their acclaim. The Independent described the concert as ‘uniquely exciting … the pianists only looked at each other when they started a piece because they felt the music together’. And the Royal Academy Magazine added: ‘the pianists performed a spirited programme of music that almost had us dancing in the aisles of the Wigmore Hall…’ They also made a recording (‘The Open Prairie’) of Aaron Copland’s complete works for two pianos.

Marcela Roggeri continues to work with Marcelo Bratke. For two years they gave a series of concerts entitled ‘400 years of Modern Music’. These unusual concerts combined piano and percussion, the latter played by Meninos do Morumbi, a group of musicians drawn from the favelas of Brazil. The concerts were an extraordinary success wherever they performed, from the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London to the concert halls of Brazil and Argentina.
In 2003 and 2004 Marcela Roggeri and Marcelo Bratke presented another enterprising programme, this time with the Brazilian Grupo Charanga: ‘Carnival Trilogy’ – works by Darius Milhaud, Ernesto Nazareth and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Once again, the critics showed great enthusiasm. The daily newspaper La Nación described the project as ‘one of the major artistic events of 2004’.
These projects also show Marcela Roggeri’s personal commitment to charity work in Brazil and Argentina, where she often gives concerts and masterclasses in aid of charity organisations fighting against poverty.

Marcela is regularly invited in many festivals in France and abroad. She plays at the Nohant festival, in Rambouillet (festival « Comme dans un Moulin ») or at the « Flâneries musicales de Reims ».
It is actually in Reims that she records in 2004 her CD « Pièces pour piano » d’Erik Satie and in 2005 a Domenico Scarlatti CD, both with the label Transart Live. Critics are unanimous to greet « the most French of Argentinian pianists » as she is now nicknamed. The Magazine Classique News and Le Monde de la Musique stress her « pianistic qualities ».

In 2005 et 2006, Marcela shows to the public not only the music but also the texts of Erik Satie, in France, with the programme « L’Univers d’Erik Satie », together with François Castang. In Latin America she creates the concert « Satie y los Otros » with actors China Zorrilla and Jean-Pierre Noher, that they present in the Solis Theatre in Montevideo (Uruguay), and at the Museo de Arte Moderno (Malba) in Buenos-Aires (Argentina).

In January 2006, she receives in France the important price « Révélation Internationale de l’Année » at the Victoires de la Musique Classique , which makes her known to a wide audience.

Marcela lives in London. She plays regularly in recital, with orchestra or in chamber music with the violinists Pablo Saraví or Marina Chiche, the celist Ophélie Gaillard, the sopranes Katarina Jovanovich and Magali Léger or the clarinettist Florent Héau. Her extensive repertoire spans from Scarlatti to Gubaidulina, from Soler to Copland, without forgetting the composers from her Latin American roots: Villa-Lobos, Guastavino, Ginastera or Piazzolla.

Coming soon