Cole Burger has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Rome’s Teatro di Marcello, the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, the Goethe Institute in Bangkok, the American Cathedral in Paris, and the United States Ambassador’s Home in Malaysia. He taught applied piano as a guest professor at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, while a member of the Fulbright Specialist Roster, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. He has won prizes at the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition, Seattle International Piano Competition, and the American Prize in Piano Performance. He has also organized and performed in various benefit recitals for non-profit organizations that have raised more than $60,000. The American Record Guide called his playing “both extraordinarily strong and achingly tender” in his solo CD Beyond the Traveler: Piano Music by Composers from Arkansas.

Dr. Burger teaches piano and related subjects at Bowling Green State University, Lutheran Summer Music, and previously served for twelve summers on the faculty at Camp Encore/Coda. He has given presentations and teaching demonstrations throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has written numerous articles and is the author of the book Keyboard Skills for the Practical Musician, published by Routledge. He holds degrees in piano performance and economics from Northwestern University and the University of Texas.

Book 1
Evocación – A somber prelude that previews the entire cycle. Listen for the otherworldly chords near the end.

El Puerto – A festive morning near Cádiz where the Guadalete River meets the sea, an intersection of peoples, sounds, and cultures.

Fête-Dieu à Séville – A religious procession, beginning with drums in the distance and ending with palm fronds waving in the night.

Book 2
Rondeña – The beginning sounds vaguely like America from West Side Story, though Albéniz wrote it fifty years earlier. Not a rondo, but impressions of the city of Ronda. Sultry, rhythmic, and carefree.

Almería – At various points throughout Iberia, Albéniz instructs the pianist to play nonchalantly, nowhere more so than here.

Triana – There are orchestrations of all these pieces by Carles Suriñach and Enrique Fernández Arbós. Listen for drums, bells, tambourines, and more in this elegant depiction of the Gypsy quarter of Seville.

Book 3
El Albaicín – The title refers to a neighborhood in Grenada, home to the Alhambra palace, a monument of Islamic architecture. The crisp rhythms at the beginning and the deep emotion of the end are some of my favorite moments of the cycle.

El Polo – One of the many remarkable features of Iberia, and this movement in particular, is the way Albéniz incorporates folk songs, rhythms, and dances. Here the music, with few exceptions, sobs, soars, and finally, sinks.

Lavapiés – Albéniz almost destroyed this piece because of its difficulty. A vivid depiction of a working-class neighborhood in Madrid.

Book 4
Málaga – With almost unyielding drive, this piece is a glorious prelude to the end. The approach to the coda is another one of my favorite moments in the cycle.

Jerez – Comes from another world. Chronologically, the last piece Albéniz composed in this cycle.

Eritaña – Rollicking, improvisatory, and boisterous. In the words of a (French) YouTube commenter: “apparent joy, constantly veiled by nostalgia, eternally Andalusia…”

Bonus!
Navarra – Originally written to follow Málaga, Albéniz never finished this work, finding it “shamelessly cheap.” I love the second theme—such a great tune!