Teodora Adzharova + Ramin Arjomand
Stretto Festival collaboration with Spectrum
Sunday, November 9
4 PM
Single program of 1 hour, 20 minutes, played straight through.
First set (~70 minutes, uninterrupted):
Teodora Adzharova, piano
Selections from The Vanishing Pavilions by Michael Hersch
Interspersed with Twelve Preludes by Galina Ustvolskaya
Transcription of Music by Josquin des Prez by Michael Hersch
Second Set: (~15-20 minutes):
Ramin Arjomand, piano improvisations
Reception to follow.
Click here to read more about Spectrum, a remarkable organization established to “foster innovation and virtuosity in the arts,” and has since asserted itself as one of New York City's enthusiastic venues for modernist, experimental music (and other endeavors), presenting over 2,400 events.
“[Spectrum] has become a go-to place for contemporary fare.”
— Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
“…a cozy, ambitious performing-arts space.”
— Steve Smith, The New Yorker
About Teodora Adzharova
Laureate of numerous national and international competitions, Dr. Teodora
Adzharova’s career has taken her to multiple performance venues in the United States,
Bulgaria, France, Germany, Macedonia, Serbia, and the Czech Republic. Described as
a “true musician” with “electrifying energy” and “limitless emotional and dynamic range”
(NYCR), the Bulgarian pianist has established herself as one of the most sought-after
musicians in the Baltimore, MD-Washington, D.C. region, frequently collaborating with
musicians from both the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Some of Dr. Adzharova’s recent performances include
appearances at the Peabody Institute, University of Maryland, Baltimore County,
Goucher College, York College, Catholic University of America, the DiMenna Center, the
Bulgarian Embassy in D.C., the Washington Arts Club, and Silo Hill.
Dr. Adzharova’s 2025–2026 season will feature the release of her debut solo album
dedicated to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. The CD will include the
composer’s Preludes, Op. 34 and Piano Sonata, Op. 61. One of the few pianists who
performs both of Shostakovich’s piano sonatas in a single program, Dr. Adzharova has
presented lecture-recitals of the repertoire at Peabody (2025), UMBC (2022), the World
Piano Conference (Serbia, 2023), and the DiMenna Center (New York, 2024). Her
interest in the legacy of Shostakovich has garnered the recognition of Alan Mercer,
editor-in-chief of the international DSCH Journal, leading to collaborations and the
publication of Dr. Adzharova’s writings.
As a passionate educator, she teaches at the Peabody Preparatory division, where she
also coordinates the Musicianship for Pianists program. Her previous faculty
appointments include the Peabody Conservatory, UMBC, Community College of
Baltimore County and the Leon Fleisher Academy. Dr. Adzharova is a board member of
the Greater Baltimore Music Teacher Association and is a sought-after adjudicator for
numerous regional and state competitions and recitals. In 2019, Dr. Adzharova’s
dedication to chamber music and community engagement led her to become the Co-
founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Annunciation Cathedral Concert Series. Each
season, the series offers inventive and accessible classical music programming to the
Baltimore community, promoting high-caliber artists from the region and beyond.
Dr. Adzharova holds piano performance degrees from the Peabody Institute (DMA,
2020; Performance Diploma, 2013; MM, 2011), where she studied with Ellen Mack.
About the program
A set of 50 movements divided into two books, The Vanishing Pavilions is a large-scale
work composed by Michael Hersch and inspired by the poetry of Christopher Middleton.
Written over a span of five years, the work explores a vast range of emotions that can
be unsettling, disturbing, frightful and yet tender and pure in their unassuming
directness. From sparse textural simplicity to multi-layered sophistication, the work is
held together by a subtle narrative of harmonic implications and musical gestures. The
premiere took place in 2006 in the hands of the composer himself. Performed in its
entirety the cycle lasts approximately two and a half hours, and it represents one third of
a the much larger work - sew me into a shroud of leaves.
In stark opposition to Tha Vanishing Pavilions stand Ustvolskaya’s Twelve preludes
composed in 1953. As a composer working during the Stalinist era, her music did not
achieve popularity at the time, and it has only recently reached wider recognition. A
woman of fierce, brutal and uncompromising nature, Ustvolskaya considered herself
“unique” and her music as untouched by any musical influences. The preludes are
representative of the composer’s affinity for stark textures, dramatic contrasts and
obstinacy of musical ideas.
About Ramin Amir Arjomand
Ramin Amir Arjomand is an Iranian-American composer, pianist, conductor, and
teacher based in Brooklyn. His music blurs distinctions between composition and
improvisation, demanding in each the spontaneity as well as the level of formal
intelligence often associated with one or the other individually and exclusively. His
playing draws as much on a 19th-century European approach to piano resonance as it
does on the unfettered sensibility of American avant-garde jazz. Beneath the surface
lies a musical ethos that quietly echoes the Iranian dastgah tradition.
Arjomand’s research has focused on the polyphonic technique of 15th-century Franco-
Flemish composers. His pedagogical essay "On Contrapuntal Practice" is based largely
on his research into this music. His interest in vocal music and in speech as music has
led to a wide variety of concert, electroacoustic, and music theater works that
experiment with the human voice in different ways.
Arjomand has worked extensively as a composer, pianist, lecturer, and musical adviser
for modern dance. He has worked to develop collaborative models in which composer
and choreographer can trust one another to work freely and independently toward a
common goal. His approach to dance theater composition emphasizes contrapuntal
relationships between sound and movement.
Arjomand is the recipient of awards from New York Foundation for the Arts, the Alice M.
Ditson Fund, the FACE Foundation, and the New York City Artist Corps. His music has
been presented by ensembles and soloists in venues throughout the United States,
Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. A highly sought-after teacher, he is currently on the
faculty at Columbia University and the Steinhardt School at New York University, where
he is the recipient of the 2022-2023 Steinhardt Teaching Excellence Award. He
maintains a private teaching studio in Brooklyn.
Listen to an interview with Ramin Amir Arjomand on The Earfull, where he discusses
his early life in Tehran, the secrets of counterpoint, and truth and trust in performance.