The Long Way Home: Paxton pianist Mackenzie Melemed back for concert by way of Finland

When Mackenzie Melemed, who grew up in Paxton, plays a piano arrangement of Finlandia by Sibelius as part of his solo recital at Stone Church Cultural Center in Gilbertville on April 2, there will be some personal significance.

The work spotlights "the enormous effect Finland has had on me," said Melemed, who moved to Finland in August, 2020.

The recital, presented by Friends of the Stone Church, will also have some significance closer to home. It will be his first concert locally since 2019.

Melemed, 28, was a Paxton piano prodigy who played many concerts in the area as a child and also ranged out to annual concerts at the White House. He was a student at Paxton Center School and graduated from Bancroft School in Worcester in 2013. He has gone on to international acclaim and awards as a pianist, achieving distinction at the Juilliard School in New York City, winning prestigious competitions, and then moving to Finland where he is well-liked and maintains a busy concert schedule.

In September 2019 he rented Tuckerman Hall in Worcester, home of the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra (with whom he had performed at its annual Holiday Pops Concert at Mechanics Hall in 2018) for a solo recital.

'I Had Plans to Come Back'

After the Tuckerman Hall concert, "I had plans to come back," he said of performing again in these parts. But a number of things intervened, not least of which was the pandemic. While he's regularly been in the area since then visiting family and friends, nothing had been lined up in terms of a local recital until he was introduced to Mary Warbasse of Friends of the Stone Church. The organization's vision is to use the historic 1874 landmark as a place of cultural and community enrichment. Friends of the Stone Church has presented many fine concerts and more are upcoming. "I think its great," Melemed said. He also likes the fact that the Stone Church Cultural Center has a vintage Steinway piano.

Friends of the Stone Church and Melemed agreed on a concert date for April 2. "I was already scheduled to do a concert in San Diego (March 30)," Melemed said of coming Stateside.

"To have this opportunity to come back pretty much 20 miles from where I grew up, it's a great way to stay in touch and see everyone," Melemed said. ''I love to drive around the area, visit my friends, see my teachers — it's fun to do that. There are a lot of people I get to see when I come back."

Melemed hopes that the recital will give the audience an opportunity to see what moves him as a pianist.

Also on the program April 2 is J.S. Bach, Partita No. 1 in B-Flat; Beethoven, Sonata in F, Op. 54 ; Debussy, Estampes; Janaçek, Sonata I.X 1905; Scriabin, Preludes, Op. 16; and Rachmaninoff from Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39.

"I want to have a good variety of pieces that I'm passionate about. The audience can really know how you feel as a musician," Melemed said.

"I have my pieces that I really love to play, like pillars of my own career." For the past six years he's been performing Bach at the beginning of every recital, he said. Melemed also likes to play compositions that may not get performed regularly but are more than worthy. The Janaçek Sonata, for example. "I fell in love with it," he said.

'I Remember Performing All the Time'

The April 2 performance is part of what has become a short U.S. tour. Actually, a concert-crammed couple of weeks was scheduled to begin March 24 with a performance of Rachmaninoff: Piano Trio No. 2 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinkil. On March 25 he'll fly from Helsinki to Boston and head up to Rockport for a solo recital March 26 at Shalin Liu Performance Center. On March 30 he'll be performing chamber music with the with San Diego Symphony, and then Melemed heads back East for his April 2 concert in Gilbertville.

A busy concert schedule is nothing new to Melemed.

"Honestly, I remember performing all the time," he said of growing up in Paxton.

"I remember performing a lot at senior centers. I don't remember what I played, but my mother has a book of about 600 newspaper articles. It's hard to believe there were that may concerts to warrant that much press," he said.

With that, "I always thought I didn't practice enough."

At the age of three, Melemed’s grandfather had bought him a keyboard at a yard sale, leading to his enrollment in a beginner piano course. Something took. Performances at local senior centers soon became a weekly occurrence, and by the time Melemed turned seven, he had given more than 200 concerts for senior citizens and charitable organizations. When Melemed appeared on "The Rosie O’Donnell Show," she remarked, “what a bargain!” at the $1 price-tag for the instrument that ignited his passion for music.

A series of small local performances connected Melemed with Washington, D.C., in 2004, and he was invited to perform at the White House Holiday Open House for five consecutive years. In 2007, only one year after beginning classical training, Melemed won the grand prize at the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition and gave his Carnegie Hall debut.

'I Thought it Was Normal'

Melemed also strived from an early age to have some balance in his life.

"I think my life hasn't always been about piano. I have really fond memories of Paxton Center School and Bancroft," he said. At Bancroft School he was involved with student musicals supporting friends with their acting, he said. Also, "I did crew," he said.

"I did practice (piano). Maybe I should have practiced more, but I knew that I wanted to live a life that would be normal. I wouldn't change that for anything."

Still, normal can be a relative feeling — as in performing lots of concerts. "It is funny to see the newspaper articles. I thought it was normal." Now, years later, "There is something distilled in me that I can handle the hectic-ness."

Melemed is a graduate of the Artist Diploma program at The Juilliard School and also holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degree from the school, where he graduated from an accelerated five-year-dual-degree program.

In an earlier interview he recalled that one time he had a layover in Helsinki en route to a performance in Prague in the Czech Republic. While in Helsinki, he became fascinated with Finnish.

"I loved the language. It was mesmerizing for me because I think I have a knack for languages."

At The Juilliard School he had to take classes at Columbia University, and one of the courses available was Finnish. Melemed jumped at the opportunity to study the language and also began a correspondence with a pen pal in Finland. He subsequently visited the pen pal's family in Finland, who helped arrange for Melemed to give a concert at a church. A person who attended the concert told Melemed he should apply for the Fourth International Maj Lind Piano Competition to be held in August 2017, in Helsinki.  Melemed won it as one of 37 pianists from 15 countries selected from 195 applicants for the competition, which is held every five years. He delighted television audiences by speaking in Finnish when being interviewed. A 10-concert tour of Finland followed, and he frequently returned for recitals.

Meanwhile, he won the first prize and commissioned work performance prize at the 9th annual Iowa International Piano Competition in Sioux City, also in 2017. He was the first American pianist to win the competition, which is usually held biennially, since the first one in 2005. He was also the the winner of Juilliard’s 2019 Leo B. Ruiz Carnegie Hall Recital Prize and 2018 Arthur Rubinstein Prize, as well as the Jade Medal at the 2019 China International Music Competition.

Finding Finland

He was still living in New York City when the pandemic shut things down here in March, 2020. In Finland, however, concerts were still taking place. "I really wanted to go somewhere where the music was still happening," he said.

He had been thinking about living in Finland for some time. "I had a nice ongoing relationship with the classical music community," he said.

Events led him to act. Melemed was able to get a temporary permit to live in Finland and moved there in August, 2020. A September 2020 concert went ahead in Finland as scheduled.

There had been a lag in terms of COVID coming to Finland, but when it did arrive there ultimately wasn't too much disruption, Melemed said.

With his concert schedule in Finland and around the world and also the money he earns teaching a few students online Melemed was able to get an official visa to live in Finland. The next step in four years will be dual Finnish and United States citizenship, he said.

"Mostly the performances have been funding my life," he said. But he's also received awards, including an Avery Fisher Career Grant last year for $25,000.

"Finland is very nice," he said. "It's like Massachusetts. The weather is wintry." The days can be very dark, but "you can fly to Paris in two hours.''

Finland shares a long border with Russia, something that might cause alarm given Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, Melemed said "I've always felt very safe, even though the border is huge."

Also, Finland is "so Western," Melemed noted.

As the lockdown eased, Melemed was able to resume performing in the United States, and was at the Tanglewood Music Festival last summer.

Besides performances, Melemed has commissioned a new Piano Concerto from Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman.  Melemed’s recordings include world premieres of Dorman’s “Three Etudes” and Jeajoon Ryu’s Piano Concerto with Ralf Gothóni and Sinfonia Varsovia.

"I have some projects on the horizon," Melemed said, but he would also like to get some help with organizing everything. "I'm hoping to get some general management. Since high school I have had to do everything. I hope that someone will come in and do the Rolodex. I enjoy doing it but it's quite stressful to do it on your own," he said.

"I'm hoping to have a little more control about what I'm doing. Choosing and knowing what my path is going to be with an agent."

Mackenzie Melemed — solo recital presented by Friends of the Stone Church

When: 2 p.m. April 2. A reception will follow the concert

Where: Stone Church Cultural Center 283 Main St., Gilbertville

How much: $35 at the door or online at FriendsoftheStoneChurch.org. Students under 18, free.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Local pianist Mackenzie Melemed back for concert by way of Finland