Frederic Chopin: Etude Op. 10 No. 12 in C minor "Revolutionary"
Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K457
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 "Pathetique"
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor

Umi Garrett was 8 years old in May 2009 when she made her public broadcast appearance on NBC's The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Since then, she has been performing as a soloist worldwide and appearing regularly with symphony orchestras across the United States and around the world. Most recently at age of 13, she was granted a prestigious title of the Young Steinway Artist, an honor only awarded to today's most acclaimed young artists. {Biography}

Umi Garrett is an American pianist of exceptional talent for someone aged 19 at the time of recording. Armed with a prestigious technique, she can easily dispense with any hurdles and, chameleon-like, quickly slip into the style and character of any composer's music she tackles. So far she has won First Prize at the Southwestern Youth Music Festival, J.S. Bach Competition, the International Chopin Competition (Hungary), Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and has fetched the Grand Prix award at the Chopin International Competition in the US. So her exposure on the Ellen DeGeneres Show was not simply a flash in the pan. She finds the fire in Chopin, delineates the counterpoint in Bach, highlights Mozart's frivolity as well as Beethoven's gravitas.

There's no mention in the booklet notes as to any logic to the fact that all the pieces on this CD are in C minor, except to point out that these are Garrett's favorites. I myself have played and heard these piano works many, many times over performed by legendary pianists. Despite all that, this new recording by a fledgling teenager has managed to capture my attention.