Aug

02

Karen Ouzounian (cello) Karen Ouzounian (cello)

Fri August 2nd, 2013

7:30PM

Main Space

Minimum Age: All Ages

Doors Open: 6:30PM

Show Time: 7:30PM

Event Ticket: $15

Day of Show: $20

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free for members
event description event description

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TABLE SEATING POLICY
Table seating for all seated shows is reserved exclusively for ticket holders who purchase “Table Seating” tickets. By purchasing a “Table Seating” ticket you agree to also purchase a minimum of two food and/or beverage items per person. Table seating is first come, first seated. Please arrive early for the best choice of available seats. Seating begins when doors open. Tables are communal so you may be seated with other patrons. We do not take table reservations.
 
A standing room area is available by the bar for all guests who purchase “Standing Room” tickets. Food and beverage can be purchased at the bar but there is no minimum purchase required in this area.
 
All tickets sales are final. No refund or credits.
 
This event will be streamed live online through LPR’s streaming channel, beginning at 7:30pm

the artists the artists

4

Kurt Nikkanen (violin)

An internationally recognized violin soloist, Kurt Nikkanen is one of the finest American violinists of his generation. Born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Kurt began his violin studies at the age of three. At twelve, Kurt gave his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony. Continuing his formal studies as a young adult, Kurt earned his Bachelor’s Degree, studying with Dorothy DeLay, at the Julliard School in 1986.
 
Kurt has appeared with orchestras such as the Detroit and St. Louis symphonies, and in Europe with the BBC Symphony and Dresden Staatskapelle. He has worked with many leading conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrew Davis, Jeffrey Tate, Hans Vonk, Hugh Wolff, Neeme Jarvi, and Andrew Litton. An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Kurt Nikkanen has given numerous performances of John Adams’ “Violin Concerto” among many other works.
 
Other contemporary projects include Aaron Jay Kernis’ “Concerto for Violin & Guitar,” performed at the 1998 Aspen Festival with conductor Hugh Wolff, and HK Gruber’s violin concerto, “Nebelsteinmusik,” performed with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under the composer’s direction in 1999. In the year 2000, he recorded Steven R. Gerber’s violin concerto, which was written for Kurt and continues to receive performances.
 
Since becoming a frequent soloist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra in 2003, Kurt has performed several concertos with the orchestra, including those by Stravinsky, Berg, Bach, and Vivaldi. In 2006 he premiered a new Peter Martins ballet set to Corigliano’s “Red Violin” Concerto.

Cyrus Beroukhim (viola & violin)

Violinist Cyrus Beroukhim’s luxurious sound and innate eloquence consistently draw in audiences around the world. Recently appointed as Associate Professor of String Studies at NYU, he continues to perform as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, appearing at major venues including the Theaterplatz and Paul Klee Zentrum in Bern, Novell Hall in Taipei, Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, Kravis center in Palm Beach, The Barns at Wolf Trap in Washington D.C., Qualcomm Hall in San Diego, Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and various halls throughout Germany, Luxembourg, Japan, and Israel. His performances of Bach and Vivaldi Concerti with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields were heralded as “flawless and sensitive” by the Zeitung im Espace Mittelland (Switzerland). As a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra since 2009, Mr. Beroukhim has been featured as soloist in the production of Concerto Barocco, choreographed by George Ballanchine. He has also appeared as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, New York Symphonic Ensemble, Oakland East Bay Symphony, and several Baroque and chamber orchestras throughout the United States.
 
Cyrus Beroukhim’s diverse musical activities are a reflection of his passionate interest in different genres of music. Of Persian descent, Mr. Beroukhim regularly premieres works by Iranian composers and was personally invited by Queen Farah to perform at her son’s memorial, broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide. In 2007, he founded the Zukofsky Quartet and immediately tackled the most challenging music of today’s living and recently deceased composers. The quartet’s performances of the complete Milton Babbitt cycle were praised as “supple and polished” (The New York Times) and “making the daunting and very difficult, beautiful” (Chicago Tribune). As a member of Classical Jam, an ensemble that explores the music of different cultures through original compositions and improvisation, he continuously pushes the envelope of classical music in a rapidly changing world.
 
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mr. Beroukhim started playing the violin at the age of three. He pursued his undergraduate degree at the Oberlin Conservatory and went on to receive his Master and Doctorate of Music from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Cho- Liang Lin. Joining the faculty of SUNY Fredonia in 2010, he currently teaches at Columbia University in New York City. He has recorded for Deutsche Grammaphon, Vanguard Classics, Naxos, Aeon, and New World Records, and has been broadcast live on NPR, WQXR 96.3 (New York), and K-Mozart (Los Angeles). His performance of Saint-Saëns “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” earned him the distinction of “crème de la crème” on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”

Steven R. Gerber (piano)

Steven R. Gerber was born in 1948 in Washington, D.C. and now lives in New York City. He received degrees from Haverford College and from Princeton University, where he received a 4-year fellowship. His composition teachers included Robert Parris, J. K. Randall, Earl Kim, and Milton Babbitt.
 
Two CDs of Gerber’s orchestral works were released on major labels in 2000. Chandos issued his Symphony No. 1, Dirge and Awakening, Viola Concerto, and Triple Overture, played by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Sanderling, with Lars Anders Tomter, viola, and the Bekova Sisters Trio. [CD details] KOCH International Classics, under a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, released his Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, and Serenade for String Orchestra, played by the National Chamber Orchestra under Piotr Gajewski, with soloists Kurt Nikkanen and Carter Brey. [CD details] After the American premiere of his Violin Concerto at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1995 by Nikkanen and the National Chamber Orchestra under Gajewski, the Washington Post called it “a major addition to the contemporary violin repertoire: lyrical, passionate, beautifully tailored to the instrument’s character and capabilities…Gerber has revived the spirit of romanticism in this work, with a strong sense of tonal melody and of the dramatic effects and surprises still possible in traditional forms…one of the year’s most memorable events.” And when Carter Brey premiered his Cello Concerto with the same orchestra and conductor in 1996, the Washington Post said, “Gerber’s concerto seems to have what it takes to establish a foothold…. The music is composed with a fine sense of instrumental color…. Gerber has given his soloist some fine, expressive melodies.”
 
Recent works of Gerber’s include a Viola Concerto written for Yuri Bashmet and premiered by Bashmet at his summer festival in Tours, France; String Quartets No. 4 and 5, written respectively for the Fine Arts and Amernet String Quartets; “Spirituals” for clarinet and string quartet, commissioned by Concertante Chamber Players for performances in 2000 at the Library of Congress and Merkin Hall (NYC) and in Harrisburg; a Clarinet Concerto for Jon Manasse, premiered by him with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestro Piotr Gajewski, and “Fanfare for the Voice of A-M-E-R-I-C-A,” commissioned to celebrate VOA’s 60th anniversary, and premiered at the VOA auditorium on a 9/11 memorial concert in 2003. The Fanfare has since then been performed by the Wheeling Symphony, the Omaha Symphony, the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) Orchestra, and by the National Philharmonic Orchestra at the new Music Center at Strathmore as part of the 2005 ASOL convention.
 
Gerber’s music is well-known also in Russia and Ukraine, where he has had numerous tours with literally dozens of performances of his orchestral works as well as many concerts of his solo and chamber works. Several of his major works were given their world premieres there, including “Dirge and Awakening” by the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Violin Concerto by the Novosibirsk Philharmonic under Arnold Katz, with soloist Kurt Nikkanen, and Serenade Concertante by Chamber Orchestra Kremlin under Misha Rachlevsky at the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Gerber has written several works for famed Russian violinist Tatyana Grindenko.
 
In 2007 Arabesque released a CD of three of Gerber’s orchestral works, Spirituals for string orchestra, Clarinet Concerto, and Serenade Concertante, featuring the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony, conducted by Vladimir Lande, and clarinetist Jon Manasse. In 2009 Naxos released on its American Masters series a CD of nine solo and chamber works of Gerber, all featuring violinist Kurt Nikkanen, and including violinists Cho-Liang Lin and Cyrus Beroukhim, cellist Brinton Smith, and pianist Sara Davis Buechner.
 
Gerber recently completed a new orchestral work, “Music in Dark Times,” commissioned by Vladimir Ashkenazy. The four world premiere performances took place in March, 2009, with Maestro Ashkenazy conducting the San Francisco Symphony.
 
Steven Gerber official site

Karen Ouzounian (cello)

Described as a “radiant cellist” (New York Times), Karen Ouzounian has performed as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout North America and Europe. She has performed with such ensembles as Trio Cavatina, the Tessera Quartet, A Far Cry, The Knights, IRIS Orchestra, ECCO, counter)induction, the Argento Chamber Ensemble and Continuum. Highlights of the 2012-2013 season include a Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute tour, performances on the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts’ Rising Stars series, and a solo recital at the Caramoor International Music Festival. She has collaborated with world-renowned artists Richard Goode, Kim Kashkashian, Miriam Fried, Pamela Frank, Donald Weilerstein, Gilbert Kalish, Charles Neidich, Vera Beths, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard and St. Lawrence String Quartets. Festivals include the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the Open Chamber Music Seminar at Prussia Cove (UK), and Festspiele MecklenburgVorpommern (Germany). She was a prizewinner at the 2012 Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank Competition and the Zara Nelsova Competition for Canadian Cellists in 2011. Currently residing in NYC, Ms. Ouzounian holds Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Timothy Eddy.

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