Airapet Arakelian

Daniil Trifonov

Saturday, February 23 at 8:00 pm in the Florence Gould Theater

Airapet Arakelian, saxophone

Daniil Trifonov, piano

Born in Armenia in 1991, Airapet Arakelian first studied, from 1999 to 2003, with Prof. Alexander Manukyan, and since 2005 with Prof. Daniel Gauthier at the Koln "Hochschule fur Musik."  He has won many prizes, including First Prizes at the 2005 Yamaha Saxophone Competition, the 2002 International Saxophone Competition in France, and the 2001 National Saxophone Competition in Armenia.

He has performed at such festivals as Val d'Oise (France), Hamilton (Canada), Tarragona (Spain), "Delphic Games" International Competition-Festival (2004, Moldova), "Palaces of St. Petersburg" (Russia) and the first Pan-Armenian Cutural Festival.  He has earned scholarships from the International Spivakov Fund, "New Names" of Armenia, the Aram Khachaturian Charitable Fund, and has been a Guzik Foundation Award Winner in 2004 and 2006.

Airapet has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Armenia, the Russian State Academic Chamber Orchestra, Armen Hakob Symphonic Orchestra, "Serenada" Chamber Orchestra, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Constantine Orbelian (San Francisco, 2005).  He has concertized in France, Belgium, Luxembour, Germany, Austra, the UK, Czech Republic, Spain, Slovenia, Greece, Ukraine, Georgia, Canada, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, UAE, Italy, and the USA.

Daniil Trifonov , born in Nizhniy Novgorod in 1991, has been studying music from the age of five. Currently he studies at the Moscow Gnesins Special Middle Music School, in the class of Docent Tatiana Abramovna Zelikman.

Daniil was Prize Winner of the Moscow Open Artobolevskaya Competition for
Young Pianists (First Prize, 1999), the International Television Competition for Young Musicians (Grand Prize, 2003), the Chamber Ensembles Festival “The Return” (2005), the Romantic Music Festival for Moscow Young Musicians (2006), and the Fifth International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists (Beijing).

He has been a recipient of the Yuri Rozum International Charity Foundation Scholarship, the Scriabin Scholarship, the “New Names” Scholarship, the “Young Talents of Russia” Foundation Scholarship, and, in 2007, has been a Guzik Foundation Award Winner.

Daniil has performed with many orchestras, and has participated in music festivals in Russia, Germany and Austria. He also composes piano and orchestra music.

SUBSCRIBE HERE, or buy single tickets to this performance by clicking here or by calling 415-392-4400

Konstantin Alexeev

Sergey Dogadin

Sunday, February 24 at 2:00 pm in the Florence Gould Theater

Konstantin Alexeev, piano

Sergey Dogadin, violin

Konstantin Alekseev, born in Moscow, started his musical education at the age of five. In 2003 he graduated with honors from the Academic Music College and entered the Moscow Academic Chopin College, studying with the distinguished pianist Alexei Nasedkin. In 2006 he entered the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, continuing his studies with Professor Nasedkin.

Konstantin won the First Prize in the competition “Musicalia” (Athens, 2000) and prizes in “The Teacher and the Schoolboy” (Moscow, 2001), Vladimir Krainev's Young Pianists' Competition (Kharkov, 2002), the Seiler Competition for Young Pianists (Germany, 2003), and the Moscow Frederic Chopin Competition (2004). He was a laureate of the Young Moscow Chopin Festival in both 2005 and 2006.

He has performed with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, on tour in Warsaw, Krakow, and Japan, and in such Moscow concert halls as the State Moscow Conservatory, the Moscow International House of Music, the Armory Museum, Slobodkin Concert Hall, the Glinka, Pushkin and Scriabin Museums, and the Lenin, Turgenev, and Chekhov Libraries.

Konstantin has been a recipient of the presidential program “Russian Children,” the Spivakov International Beneficial Fund, the Ministry of Culture Fund, and the Krainev International Beneficial Fund. This is his first year as a Guzik Foundation Award Winner.

Sergey Dogadin was born in St. Petersburg into a family of well-known musicians. Presently, he studies in the class of Professor Ovtcharek at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

He won First Prize in nine international violin competitions, including the Alexander Glazunov International Violin Competition (France, 2001), Dombrovsky Violin Competition (Latvia, 2002), the Andrea Postaccini Violin Competition (Italy, 2002), and the Paganini International Violin Competition (Russia, 2005). Sergey has been a recipient of the Ministry of Culture Fund and the Foundation “New Names.” In addition he is a laureate of the “Temirkanov's Prize.”

Sergey has toured Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, the Netherlands and the UK, performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonia Orchestra, Ulster Symphony Orchestra, Nordic Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Mishkolz Symphony Orchestra, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia and others.

Sergey has enjoyed the honour of performing on Niccolò Paganini's violin as well as on Johann Strauss's violin.

SUBSCRIBE HERE, or buy single tickets to this performance by clicking here or by calling 415-392-4400

"Sheer elegant beauty - masterful!" - The New York Times

"An almost guilt-inducing creaminess" - San Francisco Chronicle

The Miró Quartet, founded in 1995 at the Oberlin Conservatory, met with immediate success, winning first prize at the 50th annual Coleman Chamber Music Competition in April 1996, and taking both the first and grand prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition two months later. Earning first prize at the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Miró Quartet also won the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 2000. In 2005, the Quartet was the first ensemble to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, and received the Cleveland Quartet Award that year as well.

The Miró Quartet has been Faculty String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Texas at Austin for three years. Its members - violinists Daniel Ching and Sandy Yamamoto, violist John Largess, and cellist Joshua Gindele - teach and coach chamber music there, while maintaining their active international touring schedule.

Recent Miró Quartet seasons have included concerts in some of the world's most important concert venues, such as Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonic's Kammermusiksaal, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and at the Dresden Music Festival. The Miró Quartet has been Quartet-in-Residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two, and was named to the Distinctive Debut Series of Carnegie Hall, which provided for a local concert and debut appearances in Cologne, Stockholm, Brussels, London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Athens.

The Miró Quartet has been heard on numerous national radio broadcasts, including National Public Radio's Performance Today and Minnesota Public Radio's Saint Paul Sunday. Internationally, it has been featured on radio networks across Europe, Canada and Israel. The Quartet has also been seen on NBC's Today Show, ABC's World News Tonight and on various programs of the Canadian Broadcasting Company. At the invitation of Isaac Stern, the Quartet performed in a live broadcast at the Jerusalem Music Center in Israel and was featured in the PBS-TV "American Masters" documentary "Isaac Stern: Life's Virtuoso".

The Miró Quartet is named for the Spanish artist Joan Miró, whose surrealist works — with subject matter drawn from the realm of memory and imaginative fantasy — are some of the most original of the 20th century.

Mozart Quartet K. 499
Takemitsu String Quartet No. 1, "A way a lone"

Beethoven Quartet Op. 59, No. 2

The Miro Quartet website

Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman's virtuosity, musicianship and sheer personal magnetism have made him one of today's most sought-after concert artists. As soloist with more than a hundred orchestras, as a captivating recitalist and chamber music performer, as an innovative jazz artist, and as a prolific recording artist, two-time Grammy Award winner Stoltzman has defied categorization, dazzling critics and audiences alike throughout many musical genres.

Stoltzman graduated from Ohio State University with a double major in music and mathematics. He earned his Master of Music degree at Yale University while studying with Keith Wilson, and later worked toward a doctoral degree with Kalmen Opperman at Columbia University. As a ten-year participant in the Marlboro Music Festival, Stoltzman gained extensive chamber music experience, and subsequently became a founding member of the noted ensemble TASHI, which made its debut in 1973.

Since then, Stoltzman's unique style of playing the clarinet has earned him an international reputation as he has opened up possibilities for the instrument that no one could have predicted. He gave the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, and in 1986, he became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize. This season he was awarded the prestigious Sanford Medal by the Yale School of Music. His talents as a jazz performer as well as a classical artist have been heard far beyond his annual tours. He has performed or recorded with such jazz and pop greats as Gary Burton, the Canadian Brass, Chick Corea, Judy Collins, Eddie Gomez, Keith Jarrett, the King's Singers, George Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Mel Tormé, and Spyro Gyra founder Jeremy Wall. His commitment to new music has resulted in the commissioning and premiere of numerous new works for the clarinet, including the recent "Landscapes with Blues" by Stephen Hartke, and a concerto by Einojuhani Rautavaara which premiered with conductor Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.

Richard Stoltzman has a discography numbering over 50 releases on BMG/RCA, SONY Classical, MMC, BIS, Albany and other labels, including a Grammy-winning recording of Brahms Sonatas with Richard Goode. Among Stoltzman's most beloved releases are "Amber Waves", a CD of American works, and the Trios of Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma, which won Stoltzman his second Grammy Award. Recent releases include the acclaimed recordings of Hartke's "Landscapes with Blues" with IRIS, conducted by Michael Stern (Naxos), a New York Times "Best of 2003", and Rautavaara's Clarinet Concerto recorded with Leif Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic, released on Ondine (2005). Tom McKinley's "RAP" with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and an all-Bach recording are two forthcoming releases.

Past season highlights have featured Stoltzman with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia and at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, marking Stoltzman's 25th appearance at the Lincoln Center festival as well as performances throughout the US, Canada and Europe of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Clarinet Concerto. Duo recitals with pianists Emanuel Ax and Lukas Foss, as well as performances and tours with the American, Emerson, Orion, Takacs, and Tokyo String Quartets are also highlights. Especially memorable are concerts of jazz and classics with his son, pianist Peter John Stoltzman. Father and Son have performed together around the globe and were recently featured on NPR's "Performance Today" and "Weekend Edition" as well as "Voice of America" radio. For their extraordinary talent on the stage, in the classroom, and throughout the community, WGBH radio in Boston called the Stoltzmans "New England's First Family of Classical Music".

Pianist David Deveau has earned international acclaim for his arresting and individual interpretations of solo piano repertoire, chamber music, and new music. He has been heralded by such publications as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Miami Herald, the San Diego Union-tribune, China Daily, le Figaro and the American Record Guide.

His major orchestral engagements over the last three decades include performances with the Boston Symphony (Haitink), Boston Pops (John Williams, Keith Lockhart), San Francisco Symphony (Blomstedt), Minnesota Orchestra (Silverstein), as well as the Houston, St. Louis, Miami and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras; the Inland Empire and Pacific Symphony orchestras (CA), Portland, and many others. In Boston, where he resides, he has appeared as soloist with virtually every orchestra including the Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Philharmonic, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Civic Symphony of Boston, New Philharmonia, and the Newton Symphony. Abroad, he has appeared as soloist with the Qingdao (China) Symphony, L'Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse (France) and many other regional and metropolitan orchestras. He has also been soloist with the Juilliard and New England Conservatory Orchestras.

In solo recital, David Deveau made his critically acclaimed New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center in 1982 as the recipient of a prestigious Solo Recitalist Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Prior to this, in 1978, he was winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award (in chamber music) which resulted in his chamber music debut at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has since performed frequently in New York at Town Hall, Merkin Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum, and Lincoln Center. Around the nation, he has appeared in recital at San Francisco's Herbst Theater, Seattle's Benaroya Hall, Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall, Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall, the Troy, New York Savings Bank Hall, Atlanta's Spivey Hall, and myriad other series throughout the US and Canada. Internationally, Mr. Deveau made his debut concert tour of mainland China in early 2005, where he performed a New Year's solo recital in Beijing at the Zhong Shan Music Hall in the Forbidden City, and the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in Qingdao. Both performances were broadcast on CCTV, and were featured on nationally televised morning news programs. He has also performed as soloist in England, Scotland, France and Germany. In January, 2006 Mr. Deveau will performed a recital presented by the Bank of America Celebrity Series at Jordan Hall which garnered rave reviews in all the major Boston newspapers, and was later proclaimed one of the ten best classical concerts of 2006 by Lloyd Schwartz in the Boston Phoenix.

In chamber music, David Deveau is currently in his thirteenth year as Artistic Director of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival in Massachusetts. At Rockport and other festivals, Mr. Deveau has performed with members of the Juilliard, Shanghai, Borromeo, Muir, Kronos, Orion and St. Lawrence string quartets, the Diaz and Jacques Thibaud string trios, and has been a guest artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society on several occasions. Much in demand on chamber music series and festivals, he has appeared in concert at Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, Caramoor, the la Jolla Music Society, Mainly Mozart (San Diego), Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains (Colorado), the Montana Music Festival, the Viennese Sommerfest of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) concert society, Olympic Music Festival (WA)and Bay Chamber Concerts in Maine. He is pianist of SONOS, a piano quartet based in Boston. Mr. Deveau has recorded for Centaur and EcoClassics. He has served on the music faculty of MIT since 1988, where he teaches piano, chamber music, and music history.

Schubert Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano in D major, D. 384, No. 1

Schumann Fantasiestucke for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 73

Sculthorpe Songs of Sea and Sky for Clarinet and Piano

Bernstein Sonata for Clarinet and Piano

Brahms Sonata No. 1 in F minor for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 120, No. 1

At age 17 this Scottish-born genius won the silver medal in the Segovia International Guitar Competition.   BBC soon dubbed him Musician of the Year, and his innovative recordings have won multiple Grammy nominations and linger on the “Top Ten” charts. This deeply musical trailblazer has conquered continents with the intense beauty that he creates on his custom-designed eight-string guitar; he practically hypnotizes the audience - it's a remarkable experience!

“Exhilarating beyond compare ... a joy.” - Guitar Review

“A landmark in the history of guitar” - Gramophone

“Exceptional artistry”- The New Yorker

"Magnificent!" - Andrés Segovia

William Byrd Pavan and Galliard “Sir William Petre”
Lennox Berkeley Theme and Variations for Guitar, opus 77
J.S. Bach Cello Suite No.4
Franz Schubert Piano Sonata in A-flat major, D. 557
W.A. Mozart Piano Sonata in F major, K. 280

Paul Galbraith's website

Click HERE to hear Leon Fleisher playing Bach.

Renowned pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher is a native of San Francisco, where he began his keyboard studies at 4 and gave his first public recital at 8. One year later he became a student of the legendary Artur Schnabel, who was his most important mentor both as a pianist and as a teacher. In 1944, at age 16, Mr. Fleisher made his debut with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Monteux. He went on to become the first American to win the Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition in Belgium. Regular appearances with orchestra and in recital on the world's great concert stages followed. His celebrated collaboration with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra resulted in a series of recordings, among them the Beethoven and Brahms Piano Concertos, that have remained touchstones of the classical catalogue to this day.

Midway through the 1964-65 season, Mr. Fleisher's illustrious career was interrupted by the onset of a debilitating ailment affecting his right hand, later diagnosed as repetitive stress syndrome. During the intervening years, he devoted his musical career to work as a teacher, to conducting (which he has pursued actively since 1967) and, eventually, to the left hand alone piano literature. His performances and recordings of the repertoire for the left hand, beginning in the 1980's, won him immediate critical and popular acclaim, as well as two Grammy nominations for his Sony Classical recordings (both solo works for the left hand and the Ravel and Prokofiev Concertos). It was in 1995, at a concert with Cleveland Orchestra, that Mr. Fleisher was able to play the Mozart Concerto in A Major, K. 414 successfully with both hands again. He now performs both the left-hand repertoire and select works for two hands.

Over the past few seasons, Mr. Fleisher has performed the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with the San Francisco Symphony, the Orchestre de Paris (under Carlo Maria Giulini) and the Berlin Staatsoper Orchestra (under Daniel Barenboim), among other orchestras. He has also continued to play the Mozart Concerto, K. 414 with such orchestras as the Boston Symphony, theChicago Symphony (at Ravinia) the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the New York Chamber Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (which he also conducted) and the Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand with the Toronto Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the BBC Symphony, and the Orchestra de Paris (as soloist on its European tour in the fall of 1997). His recitals, which in 1998-99 included appearances in Vienna and London (Wigmore Hall), combine two-hand and left-hand alone repertoire. He has also played chamber music at the Verbier and Santa Fe festivals.

Holder of the Andrew W. Mellon Chair at the Peabody Conservatory of Music since 1959, Mr. Fleisher also serves on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. From 1986 to 1997, he was Artistic Director of the Tanglewood Music Center. Teaching activities have been an important element of his activities at the Aspen, Lucerne, Ravinia and Verbier festivals, among others. He has also given master classes at the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Paris Conservatory, the Ravel Academy at St. Jean de Luz, the Mishkenot in Jerusalem and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Leon Fleisher holds honorary doctorates from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Towson State University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1994 Musical America named him "Instrumentalist of the Year." He has also been the recipient of the Johns Hopkins University's President's Medal.

In this recital, Mr. Fleisher will perform both solo, and four-hand works with Katherine Jacobson Fleisher.

Schubert  Fantasy in F minor for piano four hands

Ravel La Valse, for piano four hands

Schubert Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960

FAREWELL!  After more than 50 years of superb performance, the world's most celebrated piano trio is retiring at the top of its game.  This, the legendary ensemble's bittersweet final performance in their final touring season, will be the chamber music event of the year - don't miss it!

This ensemble’s superb artistry, exhilarating musicianship, and lauded discography have earned it a unique perch in the pantheon of chamber music. The Beaux Arts Trio's mark in American culture has been far-reaching. The ensemble has played a major and ongoing role in the programs of important cultural and educational centers throughout North America, with annual concert series at such revered institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Celebrity Series of Boston and the Library of Congress, where the Trio is in residence. Its repeated annual engagements extended to numerous associations and chamber music series, including those of Vancouver, Denver, Portland, Kansas City, Louisville, Saint Paul, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, Cambridge and New York.  The Trio's engagements at major North American music festivals have included Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Ottawa and Orford.

The Trio's regular University performances have included appearances at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Johns Hopkins, the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Trio's annual international engagements have included appearances at the festivals of Edinburgh, Lucerne, Vienna, Helsinki, Warsaw, Hong Kong and Israel, as well as performances in the chamber music series of the world's major foreign cities.The Beaux Arts Trio's performances, always fresh and vibrantly engaging, are notable for their interpretive insight and impeccable ensemble. 

Dvorak Trio in E minor, Op. 90 ("Dumky")
Kurtág Trio
Schubert Trio in B-flat major, op. 99

Click here to see the New York Times' review of their final concert in New York City, on April 6.

In October 2005, in an electrifying outing this 20 year old Polish virtuoso swept the field at at the 15th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, winning:

• The Gold Medal (unanimously awarded; the Silver Medal was not granted)
  
• Best Performance of the Mazurkas
  
• Best Performance of the Polonaises
  
• Best Performance of a Concerto
  
• Best Performance of a Sonata

The first Pole in 30 years to win this prestigious competition (since Krystian Zimerman), Blechacz began his piano studies at the age of five and is currently completing his studies at the Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy in Bydgoszcz with professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron.

The young artist has already won many awards and prizes at the international piano competitions worldwide. Among them were the Second Prize at the Artur Rubinstein Young Pianist Competition in Bydgoszcz (2002),  the top prize(shared with Alexander Kobrin) at the 5th International Young Pianist Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan (2003), and the First Prize at the 4th International Piano Competition in Morocco (2004).

The Gold Medal at the Chopin Competition has opened the door for him to the most prestigous concert halls all over the world. The pianist has been invited to perform at the Warsaw Philharmony Hall (March 2006), the Tchaikovsky Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev (May 2006), Tonhalle in Zurich (September 2006), 12 recitals in major concert halls in Japan including Tokyo Opera City (November 2006), Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (December 2006), Herkules Saal in Munich (March 2007), Wigmore Hall in London (April 2007), Auditorio Nacional in Madrid (May 2007), re-invitation performances in Japan, including Suntory Hall in Tokyo (May-June 2007), Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels (September 2007). The latest artist's performances at the Summer festivals: Ruhr, Verbier and La Roque d'Antheron (July-August 2006) were enthusiastically received by the critics. Rafal Blechacz’s calendar is now fully booked 2 years in advance and includes more than 120 performances at the major cultural centers of Europe and the Far East.

In 2006 Mr. Blechacz signed an exclusive 5 year contract with Deutsche Grammophon for three recording productions. The first CD will be released in 2007.

Rafal Blechacz' website

See Ms. Dinnerstein playing Bach, and speaking about the Goldberg Variations, here.

Simone Dinnerstein is a fast-rising star adulated by audiences and critics alike for her recitals at the Salle Cortot in Paris, London's Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Berlin's Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Her CD of the Goldberg Variations , issued in mid-September, 2007, immediately shot to #1 on the Billboard classical charts, and stayed in the Top 10 for 23 weeks!

“An utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation, Ms. Dinnerstein brings her own pianistic expressivity to the “Goldberg” Variations, probing each variation as if it were something completely new. This Telarc album has became one of the success stories of the year.”
– The New York Times, Critic Anne Midgette's Best of 2007 Classical CDs.

“Listening to the Goldberg Variations, as performed by Simone Dinnerstein, is the single most striking musical experience of my life.”
– William F. Buckley in Gramophone magazine, November 2007

The disc also appeared in such “Best of 2007” lists as The L.A. Times , The New Yorker , iTunes “Editor's Choice Best Classical,” Amazon.com, ArkivMusic, Soundstage.com, and Barnes & Noble.

J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations