Youthful American-trained pianist Melanie Lina captivated a large audience in the fifth of Tauranga Musica series at Graham Young Auditorium recently.

Pianist Melanie Lina. Photo: Supplied.

With a commanding stage presence and easy rapport with her audience Ms Lina led us through a varied international program she was at home with.

JS Bach's ‘French Suite No 5' will challenge any listener, but Melanie's skill transported us easily to that point in musical time assisted by its well-known Gavotte and fiendish Gigue.

A slower than usual Beethoven ‘Moonlight Sonata' was at first comforting then a wake-up call in its fiery last movement.

Debussy's ‘Clair de Lune' brought another period of relaxed familiarity, then some quirky Bartok Rumanian Folk Dances plus an aurally demanding segment of Sergei Prokofiev ‘Second Piano Sonata' signalled we had earned our intermission.

Time for some Romanticism. Known to this writer on another occasion for her sensitive performance of the captivating theme from the movie ‘Schindler's List', Melanie is no stranger to the tragedies of Russia and Poland.

So her performances of Gershwin's ‘The Man I Love' and ‘I got Rhythm', and likewise Polish Frederic Chopin's Waltzes and Nocturnes, were sensitive to composers working within transplanted cultures.

In fact Melanie has experienced transplant herself as a native of Missouri now living and teaching in Cambridge NZ, making us the clear beneficiaries. Bravo Tauranga Musica.

The final concert of the series is on September 27 at Tauranga Park Auditorium.