Beethoven, Bagels & Banter

SUN / NOV 18 / 11:00 AM

Ilya Itin Robert Davidovici VIOLIN Benjamin Lash

There will be no intermission.

Please join us after the performance for refreshments and a conversation with the performers.

PROGRAM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) in E major, K.542 I. Allegro II. Andante grazioso III. Allegro

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D minor, Op. 9 I. Moderato II. Quasi variazione – Andante III. Allegro risoluto

This series made possible by a generous gift from Barbara Herman.

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 18 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Audiences throughout the world During the 2015/16 season, he Institute at Princeton University. revere ILYA ITIN’s (piano) unique released his newest recording of He has also taught in the piano artistry. Playing sold out houses in the complete Debussy Preludes on departments of the Japan and in the US, he is known for vinyl and high defi nition audio. His prep and college divisions, Peabody his extraordinary range, power, quality Princeton recital, in July 2015, was Conservatory and the Graduate of sound and command of the piano. also released as a state of the art Program at CUNY. He resides in Tokyo, His Princeton recital was singled out high defi nition recording of the live Japan, and , where he by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a “top performance. It featured beloved maintains a private teaching studio. ten musical moment of the year,” works of Rachmaninov and Scriabin. and a New York Times critic described Itin’s DVD of the “Russian Marathon” ROBERT DAVIDOVICI, violin, is him as “a brilliantly insightful pianist concerts at the Miami International acclaimed in the , who offered a superb recital.” Since Piano Festival was also recorded , Europe, South America, capturing the Gold Medal, BBC live in one day and included all Australia and Asia as a virtuoso Audience Award and Contemporary 24 Preludes of Rachmaninov and in , recital and Prize at the 1996 Leeds Prokofi ev’s 7th and 8th . music performances who combines International Piano Competition, Other recordings include Beethoven’s spectacular technique, wide-ranging he has performed throughout the 2nd with the repertoire and magnifi cent artistry world bringing his powerful musical Jerusalem Camerata on the JDR with an exciting, compelling stage imagination and mastery to wide label and Prokofi ev’s 6th with presence. Born in Transylvania, ranging repertoire. “I’d go to hear him Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition Romania, he began his studies as a play the phonebook,” remarked BBC on VAI. student of . He went TV critic Ian Burnside. on to study with Ivan Galamian at He is also a much sought after the Juilliard School, where, upon Ilya Itin has performed with many teacher, giving regular master graduating, he became a teaching of the world’s great conductors, classes throughout Japan and in assistant to the Juilliard String including Sir , Neemi Princeton, Miami and New York. Quartet. He has collaborated in Jarvi, Christoph von Dohnanyi, His students include winners of top concert with such esteemed artists Yakov Kreizberg, Vassily Sinaisky, prizes in international competitions as Yo-Yo Ma, , Lynn Valery Polyansky and Mikhail Pletnev, and highest awards at the most Harrell, Yefi m Bronfman, Cho Liang- performing as soloist with orchestras, competitive conservatories of the Lin and Emanuel Ax, among others. including the , U.S. and Japan. Carnegie Hall has featured him as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, part of its “American Music Masters” the Tokyo Symphony, the National Born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, his series and he was the subject of a Symphony, the Philharmonic, piano studies began at the Sverdlovsk television special on WGBH Boston. the National Symphony, the School for the Gifted with Natalia His multifaceted career has included Symphony Orchestra of India, the Litvinova. He went on to graduate being Concertmaster of such Mexico City Philharmonic and the from the Conservatory orchestras as the Osaka Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic. with the highest honors in 1990, Vancouver Symphony, The Residentie working with legendary teacher Orchestra (The Hague) and Cincinnati Much lauded for his chamber music Lev Naumov. He won his fi rst Symphony, as well as the Grand Teton collaborations with colleagues and major piano competition while at Music Festival and Chautauqua and friends in the US, Europe and Asia, the Conservatory, taking second Colorado Music Festival Orchestras. he recently performed Beethoven's place in the 1990 Russian National In addition to his solo engagements, Archduke Trio in New York with the Rachmaninov Competition. Soon he is Artist-in-Residence and Jupiter Chamber Players followed after, he won top honors in the Professor of Violin at Florida by a recital of the complete Brahms William Kapell Competition, followed International University in Miami. He Sonatas in Tokyo with violinist by First Prize and the Special Chopin is a guest professor at leading music Fuminori Maro Shinozaki. He has made Prize at the Casadesus Competition schools around the world, most numerous recordings of chamber (Cleveland Competition), and the recently at the Musashino Academia music, including Beethoven’s “Spring” Best Performance of a Work of Musicae in Tokyo, Universities of Sonata, Brahms’ Sonata; Mozart, Best Prokofi ev Performance Washington and British Columbia and Martinu’s Double Violin Sonata; and and Third Prize at the Gina Bachauer the Australian National University. Piazzola’s Spring/Autumn in Buenos Competition. The Montréal La Presse said that, Aires, with Igor Gruppmann, violin and “Robert Davidovici is a born violinist Vesna Gruppmann, viola/violin. He He is on the teaching faculties of the in the most complete sense of has also recorded a full recital with Musashino Academy in Tokyo, the the word.” In October 2013, he legendary violinist Ida Haendel at the Academy of the Miami International performed the Beethoven Violin Miami International Piano Festival. Piano Festival and the Golandsky Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE 19 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Orchestra (RPO) under Grzegorz transcriptions of Chopin’s Nocturnes Nowak, after which he recorded his was released in May 2004 in Japan second CD with the RPO under G. by JVC Victor. He is the recipient Nowak, containing the Beethoven of several distinguished First Prize and Mendelssohn Concerti. honors, among them, the Naumburg The reviews for the fi rst CD with the Competition and the Carnegie Hall RPO, under G. Nowak, released in International American Music Violin the autumn of 2013, comment on Competition. “the fantastic performance of the Kletzki and Robert Cellist BENJAMIN LASH was a top Davidovici’s full-blooded tone prizewinner in the Washington being just what the work deserves” International Competition. Recent (TheArtsDesk.com). He returned to concerto performances include London in February 2015 to perform Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, the Tchaikovsky and Brahms Violin Haydn’s C Major with Concerti, again with the RPO under the Colburn Orchestra and Dvořák’s Maestro Nowak. In February 2007, Cello Concerto with the Brentwood he was soloist at Lincoln Center’s Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber Avery Fisher Hall in the American musician, Benjamin has participated premiere of the Kletzki Violin in summer festivals including Ravinia's Concerto (1928) with the American Steans Music Institute, Sarasota Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Festival, Taos, Aspen, Holland Leon Botstein, following which The International Music Sessions, Fortissimo New York Times commented on the Fest in Bulgaria and Franco-American “excellent” performance. Chamber Music Festival in Missillac, , in describing his France. Lash is a member of Sakura performance on Bach’s Solo Sonata (sakuracellos.com), a cello quintet No. 1 said, “he played cleanly and based in . without affectation. Contrapuntal lines emerged clearly because Benjamin began studying cello at the multiple stops stayed in tune, and a age of six. In his early teens, as a fi rst- fast, tight vibrato helped keep the place winner of multiple Chicago area music from sounding expressive in competitions, he performed a 19th-century manner. This was, in by Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich, fact, excellent Bach.” In describing Hindemith and Haydn. Benjamin his performance of the Bernstein received his Bachelors of Music from Serenade, The New York Times stated the Colburn Conservatory of Music that “it would have been hard to where he studied with Ronald Leonard. imagine a sweeter performance,” He completed a Master of Music degree and the Sydney Morning Herald wrote, at the USC Thornton School of Music “Robert Davidovici lingered lovingly and is currently pursuing a Doctorate over the poetic passages of the degree in cello performance. He is Tchaikovsky Concerto, and ignited a recipient of the USC Music Faculty the fi ery ones with passion.” Fanfare Endowed Scholarship and studies with Magazine commented on his fi rst Ralph Kirshbaum. CD that “Davidovici handles the fi ve compositional styles with confi dence. His tone is ripe, his intonation dead on, and he plays with aplomb. This is an impressive disc debut.” He has recorded as violin soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra for Cala Records. His CD Mélodie-The Art of Robert Davidovici was selected as one of the top 30 CD releases in Japan in 1995. He may also be heard on New World Records, Centaur, Clavier, and Meistermusic. His CD recording of

20 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE