CIM, Cleveland are main themes of new album by pianist Daniil Trifonov

CIM is no minor character in Daniil Trifonov’s personal history – or in his new album, My American Story.  

In the pianist’s real life, CIM played a crucial role, nurturing and polishing the pianist’s incredible talent over the course of years.   

For that reason, the school now also figures prominently in the photos and liner notes of his new Deutsche Grammophon recording, the first in a planned two-part autobiographical album tracing his experiences in Cleveland and the U.S.  

CIM was “the place where I...first studied by myself,” reflected Trifonov, a native of Russia, during a February visit to the school, where he obtained an Artist Certificate and an Artist Diploma in 2013 and 2015, respectively. “It was the first time I have spent so much time in [this] country.” 

The term productive is wholly inadequate to describe Trifonov’s Cleveland years. Long before the pianist and composer started winning prizes everywhere and catching the attention of international recording labels, talent agents, and promoters – to say nothing of audiences – Trifonov worked relentlessly to succeed in the studio of Sergei Babayan, CIM’s former artist-in-residence. 

Every day, Trifonov said, he woke early so as to be at CIM by 7am – around the time he began his February visit – in time for his preferred practice room. The concept of breakfast was one he entertained only after several hours.  

Most days then proceeded in much the same fashion, with more practicing, interrupted by an occasional trip, always by foot, to The Coffee House, a restaurant in Cleveland’s Little Italy, or a lesson with Babayan in Room 212.  

“I have a lot of great memories [there],” Trifonov said of CIM. “The lessons were very impactful.”  

Two memories in particular stand out for Trifonov: the importance of Mixon Hall and an invitation to collaborate with CIM Opera Theater, in rehearsals of Strauss’s Ariadne Auf Naxos.  

Stepping out of his comfort zone to help with an opera was the grandest of many new musical experiences CIM fostered, Trifonov said, and having a hall like Mixon in which to practice and perform brought a “whole new dimension to learning.”  

Cleveland – as in the city – lands the most visible spot on My American Journey: the cover. Beneath the DG masthead and album title, a jaunty-looking Trifonov strides down an industrial road in The Flats, ahead of a lumbering dump-truck.  

Artistic photos of the city’s bridges, skyline, and landscapes, notably including Cleveland’s Terminal Tower, also grace the CDs, while photos of Trifonov in his favorite spaces at CIM appear in the project’s expansive liner notes.   

The recording itself features the Philadelphia Orchestra and artistic director Yannick Nezet-Seguin, with whom Trifonov performs Gershwin’s Concerto in F and the world premiere of a new concerto by Mason Bates.  

Trifonov alone also acknowledges the U.S. with Copland’s Piano Variations, Corigliano’s Fantasia on an Ostinato, a New York recording of Cage’s 4’33”, and his own transcription of Johnny Green’s I Cover the Waterfront.

“I did not wish to record an anthology,” Trifonov writes in the album’s liner notes. “These are simply pieces that I feel personally connected to. Favorites of mine that speak to me on a musical level.”