New York, NY (Top40 Charts) TESLA RHAPSODY, a new ground-breaking "tour de force" composition for piano and orchestra by award-winning pianist and composer MARINA ARSENIJEVIC pays tribute to famed scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla
PBS TV star and Emmy nominated composer and pianist MARINA ARSENIJEVIC's latest composition and CD for piano and orchestra will be released worldwide on April 15th, 2022 by United World Bravo
Music exclusively through Amazon and Apple Music. This is the first major composition honoring the life of famed scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla.
"If you don't like being in the dark when the lights go out, there is one person that you have to thank for all the electricity you use. It is the renowned scientist and inventor Nikola
Tesla whose inventions are recognized as vital foundations for the technological advances of both the 20th & 21st centuries. I wanted to pay tribute to my fellow Serbian American with the TESLA RHAPSODY which is composed for solo piano and symphony orchestra combining elements of classical music, folklore, jazz, and blues."
-MARINA ARSENIJEVIC
TESLA RHAPSODY is composed for solo piano and symphony orchestra combining elements of classical music, folklore, jazz and blues. It is a multilayered rhapsodic piano structure with distinguished melodies interwoven from Tesla's heritage. The opening is inspired by Byzantine chants and church bells reflecting the sounds of Tesla's childhood. This is augmented with elements of folklore from Tesla's homeland. Since
Tesla lived most of his adult life in New York City, TESLA RHAPSODY uses elements of jazz and blues with bitonal and bimodal episodes to reflect his busy and highly productive New York life. The structure of the composition is inspired by Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". The piano texture is distinguished by "hidden" melodies in inner parts, dense polyphony, broken chords in open positions, and frequent pedals which contribute toward the static or ambivalent feel of the harmony. TESLA RHAPSODY concludes in a heroic crescendo reflecting the impact of the genius of
Tesla on the world.
The inventions of Nikola
Tesla are recognized as pivotal to the technological advances for both the 20th and 21st centuries. Albert Einstein acknowledged the significance of Tesla's work in response to a reporter's question. When asked about how it felt to be a real genius, Einstein without hesitation replied, "if you really want an answer to that question, then you have to ask Tesla."
The legacy of Nikola
Tesla lives on through the continued application of his inventions even today. The name of
Tesla (symbol T) has been memorialized by the entire scientific community since 1960 as a unit of magnetic field strength in the International
System of Units. Today, his name has become even more universally known through the amazing success and popularity of the TESLA electric car and the efforts of our modern-day genius, Elon Musk.
MARINA ARSENIJEVIC (arson-nee-vitch) is an international award-winning pianist and composer, star of the Emmy nominated Public Television program,
Marina at West Point: Unity through Diversity which has been broadcast to more than 170 million viewers with over 550 airings by PBS Stations across the United States.
Marina created the program and performed with the 120-member joint ensemble of the West Point Band and West Point Glee Club. The Concert was recorded live at West Point's historic Eisenhower Hall and has been broadcast for more than a decade through 2020.
Critics have described
Marina as a "James Bond" beauty with a powerhouse technique that delivers an emotional punch like a "Balkan thunderbolt," while her compositions have been described as "breathtakingly original" and "unique to the ear but familiar to the soul'.
Marina has performed to enthusiastic audiences and standing ovations at major venues such as Carnegie Hall (two separate sold-out appearances), the
Chicago Symphony Center, the Toronto Center for the Arts, the
Chicago Navy Pier Auditorium, and many others throughout the country.
Laura Bush and
Cherie Blair (wife of the British Prime Minister) along with 2000 other guests were dazzled when
Marina played her original arrangement of
America the Beautiful at the annual First Lady's Luncheon in Washington D.C.
Marina's recordings of Mozart:
Marina and the St. Petersburg Soloists and Chopin: Piano Waltzes became top-selling classical CDs in Central and Eastern Europe. Her album, My Balkan Soul became the best-selling classical crossover CD in 11 European countries. Marina's CDs have sold over one million copies world-wide. She was featured on 40 magazine covers and hundreds of television programs in Europe. She received the Yugoslavian "Oscar" for most popular musical artist in 1996. The following year, she received the Yugoslavian Media Award for Most Popular All Media Personality.
Marina is the recipient of the 2014
Tesla Science Foundation
Future Icon Award following her performance of her original composition Tesla's
Journey at the 2013 dedication of the Nikola
Tesla statue at the century-old
Tesla Wardenclyffe Laboratory in Long Island. She is also recipient of 2015
Tesla Spirit Music and Performance Award.
Marina was selected as a recipient of the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2014. She was honored "for her outstanding achievements and humanitarian efforts in building bridges among diverse cultures and nations through her music". She is considered a heroic icon in her homeland of Serbia where she was awarded Serbia's highest diplomatic honor, the Knighthood of St. Sava for Diplomatic Pacifism in May 2018.
Marina is currently composing music for theatre and concert stage commemorating the life of her fellow Serbian American, the renowned scientist Nikola Tesla. Her master work for piano and orchestra TESLA RHAPSODY will debut in 2022/2023 with orchestras in the United States and Europe.
Marina enjoys a vast following on her social media with over 600,000 Instagram fans, more than 7 million views of her videos on YouTube and according to TracMedia, she had over 170 million PBS TV viewers of her concert "Marina at West Point: Unity Through Diversity" which was broadcast for more than ten years.
