WINSPEAR PERFORMANCE HALL

Gary Cogill reports.

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DENTON - A recent Van Cliburn finalist is back performing in North Texas, this time with a group of students.

It's all happening at the Winspear Performance Hall on the UNT campus.

Mariangela Vacatello, 27, is currently on the UNT campus rehearsing for an upcoming performance on Wednesday with conductor David Itkin and the UNT Symphony Orchestra, and she is still in awe of her Texas Cliburn experience.

"It was big, everything was big, not only in the Texas way to live but many people are behind you, many people work for you and so it's fantastic," she said.

A small audience gathered to watch Mariangela work her magic on the Steinway rehearsing Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Don't let her student-like looks fool you: this is a serious musician approaching a serious piece of music.

"To get such type of sounds you have to work with all of your body in such a way to don't be so rude. It's musicality, it's fantasy, it's a very free concerto in a way," she said.

It's all about the discipline of the process, the chance to work with such accomplished students, but most of all, creating beautiful music, whenever possible.

"They are very good, and if they play together for at least five to ten years they will be a great orchestra. Very solid with sounds and very good," said Vacatello.

E-mail gcogill@wfaa.com.