Tanya Gabrielian

Tanya Gabrielian is a pianist who appears as soloist with the California Symphony in May 2027, performing Manuel de Falla's Noches en los jardines de España, a work for piano and orchestra, alongside music by Ponce, Respighi, and a world premiere by a composer in residence.

On this program Gabrielian takes on Falla's Noches en los jardines de España, three linked movements that place the piano inside an orchestral haze meant to evoke moonlit Spanish gardens rather than showcase virtuosic display for its own sake. The piano often emerges from and dissolves back into the orchestra's texture, trading rippling figures and quiet chords with woodwinds and strings rather than dominating with bravura passages. Listeners can expect the piano to function almost as an extra orchestral color, especially in the hushed opening of the first movement and the guitar-like strumming effects Falla asks for later in the piece. The rest of the program, including Ponce's Chapultepec and Respighi's Pines of Rome, surrounds her performance with orchestral tone painting from the Spanish and Italian repertoire.