Internationally acclaimed Duo Gastesi-Bezerra has delighted audiences for over a decade with exciting programs of traditional and contemporary music for piano ensemble. Billed by the American Record Guide, as “a strong combination, playing very well together — often indistinguishable,” pianists Estibaliz Gastesi and Márcio Bezerra are staunch supporters of new music. They have commissioned and premiered more than twenty works by renowned composers.
Reflecting the duo’s commitment to perform new music “beyond the world premiere”, new works have been subsequently performed in different countries of the Americas and Europe for a wide array of audiences. In recognition of this mission, the duo has been awarded the Encore Grant by the American Composers Forum and the Gene Gutchë Performance Incentive Fund by the Schubert Club.
Performances of the duo have been broadcast on National Public Radio station WXEL (Palm Beach), Rádio Cultura (Brazil), Radio Ona Mallorca (Spain), Radio Nacional de España
(Radio Clásica), and Radio Beograd (Serbia). Their CD of postmodern piano duets has received rave reviews from the press and fellow musicians.
They were artists-in-residence three times at the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s New Music Festival, where they premiered sixteen new works. Additionally, they have performed repeatedly at the Fundação Benedicto Calixto (Santos, Brazil), the International New Music Festival of Las Vegas (NV), the Norton Museum (West Palm Beach, FL), and the Riversounds Music Series in Fort Lauderdale (FL).
Other engagements include appearances at Fundação Maria Luiza e Oscar Americano in São Paulo, Brazil; a concert of Brazilian music sponsored by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Brazilian Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia; and a concert of French impressionistic and American post-modern piano duets at the Les Arts George V concert series in Paris. They have performed at the prestigious Brasiliana Concert Series organized by the Brazilian Academy of Music in Rio de Janeiro and at the São Paulo Art Museum (MASP). They were featured at Festival Virtuosi de Gravatá (Brazil) and twice at the Festival de Inverno de Guaranhuns (FIG-Brazil), and they collaborated recently with the Birmingham Art Music Alliance, performing eight new works from Alabama composers to critical acclaim.
This past season they performed three children’s concerts with members of the Palm Beach Symphony, and premiered 2 new piano concerti by Piotr Lachert and Justin Rubin with the Palm Beach Atlantic Symphony.
Estibaliz Gastesi and Márcio Bezerra started to perform together in the 1990s at the Hartt School under the guidance of acclaimed Brazilian pianist Luiz de Moura Castro. They subsequently studied with Caio Pagano and received their Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance at the University of Arizona in 1998.
Duo Gastesi-Bezerra is the official piano-duo-in-residence of Palm Beach Atlantic University.
A native of the Basque Country, pianist Estibaliz Gastesi has performed throughout Europe and the United States. Dr. Gastesi is also an active ethnomusicologist, having published articles and reviews in respected journals in the field. Her latest research was published by the University of Nevada Press.
Brazilian pianist Márcio Bezerra has been performing often at several music halls of Brazil and the United States. He has participated in several editions of the Festival Música Nova de Santos to rave reviews. A distinguished Fulbright and CDMC scholar, his doctoral dissertation was published by the prestigious Alain Van Kerckhoven Éditeur (Belgium).
