Courtroom Concert: Miryana Moteva, piano; Anna Keiserman, piano; Fernando Meza, percussion; Erich Rieppel, percussion

Hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, our popular Courtroom Concerts take place at noon most Thursdays in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. This series features accomplished musicians and composers from the Twin Cities and surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These one-hour concerts are free and open to the public.

About the Artists:

Bulgarian-born pianist Miryana Moteva enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician and educator. She has recently appeared with Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24. Next season, she makes her debut with Golden Valley Chamber Orchestra and Buffalo Community Orchestra performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5.

Moteva collaborates regularly with members of the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in concerts across the US. She has performed at Schubert Club’s Courtroom Concerts in Saint Paul, the Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York, New Jersey’s Mozaika Music Series, University of Minnesota’s Balkanicus Series, MacPhail Center for Music’s Spotlight Concerts, University of Wisconsin, Hamline University, the Basilica of Saint Mary, the Fitzgerald Theater, and the Cowles Center, among others. She has concertized with the Isles Ensemble and 10th Wave Music Collective. Her performances have been featured on Classical MPR and NPR’s ‘From the Top.’

During the 2024-2025 season, Moteva will be featured on University of Saint Thomas’ Chapel Arts Series, ‘Concerts by the Creek’ at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, and at Westminster Hall as part of the Schubert Club’s Courtroom Concerts. A recipient of a grant for a new classical music performance, she will appear as both a concert curator and a performer for the ‘Mysticism, Legends and Traditions’ and ‘The Catalan Tradition: Volume 2’ showcases at MacPhail Center for Music.

An ardent supporter of new classical music, Moteva has been an active commissioner of new works. Her most recent commission, in collaboration with violinist David Brubaker, was Catalonian composer Marc Migó’s Sonata for Violin and Piano ‘Death and Spring.’ Following the work’s successful premiere at Schubert Club in April 2023, the duo was invited to embark on a concert tour of Spain and record a Catalan Music CD on the IBS Classical Music Label in the summer of 2025.

Moteva has appeared at festivals such as ‘March Music Days,’ and ‘Music and Earth’ international festivals in Bulgaria, and ‘San Daniele International Piano Meeting’ in Italy, where she was awarded the audience prize for best classical performance of a Beethoven sonata. Currently, she is on the faculty of MacPhail Center for Music, where she serves as a staff pianist and maintains a thriving studio as a piano teaching artist. She is also an active board member of the Music Education Committee at the Schubert Club in Saint Paul.

Moteva holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance, and a Doctorate in Collaborative Piano from the University of Minnesota. A native of Bulgaria, she is a graduate of the National School of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her principal teachers include Emma Tahmizian, Lydia Artymiw, and Timothy Lovelace.

Russian-born pianist Anna Keiserman is known for her creative programming, expressive freedom, and singular vision. Performance credits in New York City include Le Poisson Rouge, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the Fête de La Musique. Other notable venues include the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts (Toms River, NJ), the Nash Theatre (Raritan Valley Community College) the Strand Theater (Hudson Falls, NY) and the Ateneu Barcelonès (Barcelona, Spain). Anna has toured through Italy, Spain and Russia. As a soloist she performed concerti with the Volgograd Symphony Orchestra (Russia), the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and the Somerset Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has been awarded top prizes in piano competitions in Russia, and 2 nd place in the 2019 American Prize Competition. With her debut album, Russian Mosaic, released in 2019 on the Sheva Collection label, Anna offers rarely heard gems by Rachmaninoff, Shchedrin, Smirnov, and Medtner. Hailed as “the impressive pianist who played brilliantly” by New York Concert Review, the Atlanta Audio Club observed: “Her insights into the four masters of Russian piano music we have here bring them to instant, vibrant life before our very ears. Keiserman applies her notable brilliance to create the strongest impressions.”

Dr. Keiserman often collaborates with contemporary composers in projects including commissions, recordings, and world premieres. Her 2023-2024 season featured recordings of works for woodwind quintet by John Sichel and Steve Cohen, as well as the world premiere of

the song cycle “Paradoxides” by John Sichel. The trio for saxophone, bassoon and piano

Bercesue – Lament by Marc Migó will be released on the PARMA Records label in the fall of 2024. With a focus on actively engaging audiences, Anna created several custom programs for the Salmagundi Art Club in New York City. With her American Music 1917-18, Sounding Palettes, and New York Lights concerts, Anna invited audiences to explore surprising repertoire in a variety of cultural contexts. She served as the Artistic Director of the Mozaika Concert Series at Raritan Valley Community College, a series created to promote multicultural dialogue through music performance. In 2017 Anna received the “Culture and Art Award” from the New Russia Cultural Center (Rensselaer, NY) for her dedication to promoting arts and culture in the community. Anna Keiserman has served on the faculty of NYU Steinhardt School of the Arts, Rutgers University Extension Division, and William Paterson University. Having earned degrees

from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow and the University of Minnesota, Dr. Keiserman completed her Doctorate in Piano Performance at Rutgers University, where she earned the Elizabeth Wyckoff Durham Award for academic distinction and excellence in piano performance. From 2020 to 2024 Anna served as an Assistant Professor of Piano atRaritan Valley Community College before relocating to GA and joining the Music Department at the University of North Georgia.

Fernando Meza is Chair of Percussion Studies at the University of Minnesota School of Music and a regular guest percussionist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra with whom he has recorded and toured in such recognized venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Musikverein, and Berliner Philharmonie, amongst others, and on international cultural diplomacy tours in Cuba and South Africa. He has toured in Japan, Costa Rica and the USA, with legendary marimba virtuoso Keiko Abe, and is featured in her recording of Conversation in the Forest for the CD Keiko Abe and the World’s Leading Percussionists.

Meza was one of the 5 original percussionists for the Broadway production of Disney’s The Lion King; was the organizer/host of Marimba 2010 International Festival and Conference in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and is a performing artist/clinician for Grover Pro Percussion, Zildjian, and OBiolley Instruments, and percussion faculty for the Orchestra of the Americas since 2003.  His recording J.S. Bach: Suites for Unaccompanied Cello performed on Marimba by Fernando Meza is distributed through cdbaby.com, iTunes, and other digital providers.

Erich Rieppel was appointed principal timpani of the Minnesota Orchestra in the fall of 2018. Prior to that, he held the same title at New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami Beach, Florida. Rieppel has performed as principal timpanist with the Seoul Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony and New Jersey Symphony. Since 2013, he has played timpani and percussion with the Lakes Area Music Festival in northern Minnesota.  Since 2023, he has performed as timpanist with the Grand Teton Music Festival.  In January of 2024, he made his concerto debut with the National Symphony of Panamá.

At age 19, during a performance with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, his playing caught the ears of a critic from the New York Times. He has also received acclaim in the Pioneer Press for a Minnesota Orchestra performance of Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony.

Believing in being a multi-faceted musician, Rieppel has experience in arts administration, college teaching, music librarianship, composition and conducting. He made his professional conducting debut with the Southwest Minnesota Orchestra in 2013 and returned in the spring of 2022 and fall of 2023 to conduct with his father, Dr. Daniel Rieppel, as soloist.  As a teacher, Rieppel has served on faculty at the University of Minnesota and has given masterclasses at the Seoul Performing Arts Center, Sinfónica Azteca in México, the Ibera Academy in Medellín, Colombia, the University of Panamá and the University of Hawaii. As a chamber musician, Rieppel co-founded the 507 Collective, a piano/percussion quartet that includes his father.

A native of Minneapolis, Rieppel grew up near Marshall, Minnesota, and received early inspiration from his parents, both professional musicians. He attended Indiana University for his bachelor’s with a minor in conducting and master’s degrees where he studied a variety of percussion with John Tafoya, Kevin Bobo, Steve Houghton and Michael Spiro. He has also studied with Josef Gumpinger, David Herbert, Shannon Wood, Ed Stephan, Tom Freer and other artists of great influence. He spent one summer at the Aspen Music Festival and three winters at the New York String Orchestra Seminar. Rieppel proudly endorses Freer Percussion Products and Pearl/Adams percussion. In his free time, he plays hockey.