Renowned Jamaican pianist drawn to Teatru Unplugged

Internationally renowned Jamaican pianist Paul Shaw is flying in from New York to spice up today and tomorrow's performances of Teatru Unplugged at the Manoel Theatre - an 11th hour addition to this year's already hot line-up.

Hailed by The New York Times as "both a virtuoso with Herculean technical command and a sensitive introspective artist," Mr Shaw has appeared on three continents, inspiring audiences and music critics alike.

Teatru Unplugged producer Jonathan Shaw said he met the pianist in New York last week and spoke to him about this annual event. The concept appealed to him so much that he tired to take up the last-minute offer to participate. He has managed to get to Malta today to perform in the show.

A top prize winner in the 1988 William Kapell International Piano Competition and the 1986 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr Shaw has performed to high critical acclaim at prestigious venues, including the Lincoln Centre in New York, the Kennedy Centre and the Hall of the Americas in Washington, DC and Beethovenhalle in Bonn.

Now he is performing at the Manoel, inspired by Teatru Unplugged's aim to bring young people and non-regular theatre-goers into the baroque national theatre to enjoy various forms of live music by up-and-coming local artistes.

While being thrilled about his contribution to Teatru Unplugged, his only regret is that he could not make it for last night's performance.

Mr Shaw has been engaged as soloist with orchestras including the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Richmond Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Shreveport Symphony and the Dayton Philharmonic. He has worked with a host of conductors, including George Manahan, Lukas Foss and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.

His interest in music began with a toy piano his mother purchased at Woolworth's to teach him everything she had memorised from observing her guardian, a Kingston piano teacher, in secret.

By age eight, he was sight-reading hymns for church services and, at 16 he won the Howard Cooke Award for Excellence in Music, Jamaica's highest classical music award in the annual Festival of the Arts competition.

His repertoire for Teatru Unplugged, which aims to bring together different music genres from rock to pop to classical and jazz, includes Sergei Rachmaninoff's Prelude in B-flat Major, Opus 23 No. 2, Oswald Russell's Jamaican Dance No. 2 and Ernesto Lecuona's Malagueòa.