Italy Sunlight Brings InterHarmony Highlights at Carnegie Hall on Jan 18 at 8PM

Italy Sunlight Brings InterHarmony Highlights at Carnegie Hall on Jan 18 at 8PM

• Tags: Misha Quint, cello, Chopin, Beethoven, Schubert

We await the moments in our lives that shake us to our core, the realization of dreams, with a momentary connection between the transcendent and the physical. On January 18th, InterHarmony International Music Festival continues its series at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with highlights from extraordinary performances at its summer festival in Italy by such world class soloists as Misha Quint (cello), Oleh Krysa (violin), Basil Vendryes (viola), Catherine Kautsky (piano) and outstanding blossoming young artists, who were selected by InterHarmony during its festivals in Italy for a showcase performance in New York. This concert will take you on an unforgettable journey through the inner world of composers from the 18th through the 21st centuries from the romantically charged Schumann Piano Quintet, to virtuosic violin compositions of Ravel and Ysaÿe as well as the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize, George Walker. Tickets can be purchased online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by calling CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800. More information can be found at www.interharmony.com.

About the Program

Our journey begins with a rhythmic bow stroke expertly exciting a violin’s strings into motion. Violinist Isabel Chen and pianist Alla Milchtein will perform Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane, a vibrant work that represents the best of the rhapsodic flair of late romantic virtuosi, Paganini and Sarasate, with the colorful sonic freedom of the Impressionistic Era.

Following this fiery eruption of heart and technique, Victoria Sun will present two contrasting works by Franz Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 in Ab Major and Valse oubliée No.1. Liebestraum (“Love Dreams”) are a set of three pieces inspired by German poets Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath. This piece describes unconditional love and is contemplative of the love that is felt after the experience of loss. Written while recovering from an injury, the Valse Oubliee (“Forgotten Waltzes”) are reminiscent of Liszt’s earlier works, but with a more complex harmonic palette and adventurous sense of style.

With new and refreshing character, violinist Adrian Ip will be displaying works by Eugene Ysaÿe and Johann Sebastian Bach. Each one of Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas is dedicated to an important violinist of his own time; Sonata No. 6 is dedicated to Manuel Quiroga and written in the style of a Spanish habañera. Following this work is the Sarabande from Bach’s Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin. Sarabande is also a Spanish dance, and although initially regarded as indecent by European courts, it became a stately sentimental work at the heart of many of Bach’s most profound compositions.

Concluding the first half of the concert, a haunting melody emerges from the piano and skitters playfully into the air, illuminating the concert hall with cascades of luminous notes, glittering with humanity and the depths of the human spirit. Pianist Benjamin Keating will perform an extraordinary work by the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, George Walker.

Bach wrote six cello suites in his lifetime, which have become some of the most beloved works of the cello repertoire by audiences and performers alike. Opening the second half of the program, is the Prelude and Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2 performed by Thomas Soice. The Prelude has an almost improvisatory character and concludes in a cadenza that is both subtle and profound; while the Sarabande is full of reverent depth, a pouring out of the most interior well of the soul, followed by the buoyant Gigue.

For the grand finale, InterHarmony featured artists Oleh Krysa (violin), Basil Vendryes (viola), Misha Quint (cello), and Catherine Kautsky (piano) join young artist Isabel Chen (violin) side-by-side in a performance of Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in Eb. Often regarded as one Schumann’s greatest chamber music works, Piano Quintet inspired several musical works by other notable composers including Brahms, Franck, and Dvorak. Dedicated to his wife, Clara Schumann, this piece is expansive and rich with an epic character that reflects the height of the century’s lush harmonies and spirit.

An exhibition of musical delicacies ranging from the soulful modernism of George Walker to the restrained passion of Bach and the fireworks of Ravel and Ysaÿe, this concert is sure to take you on an unforgettable journey through a diverse program of immense emotional depth and character.

These sorts of performances are rare, and both audience and musicians will be left with an indelible feeling that is hard to put into words. Join us for this night of beautiful music and exceptional performance.

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PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES

Cellist MISHA QUINT was described by the renowned music critic Harris Goldsmith as a "brilliantly accomplished cello virtuoso - an embodiment of interpretive and executive music-making at its rarefied best". Daniel Webster of the Philadelphia Inquirer attested Quint a “fresh voice and “a master of probing sentiment, shaded phrasing, and flawless technique”. Quint’s repertoire ranges from Bach to the most challenging contemporary composers, including Alfred Schnittke, Sophie Goubadalina, Robert Sirota, Shulamit Ran, Steven Gerber, Nathan Davis, Ezra Laderman, and Stepan Lucky. Recent engagements include appearances with the San Remo Symphony in Italy, the Thüringen Symphony Orchestra in Rudolstadt, performing with Nikoaj Szeps-Znaider, Guy Braunstein, Alexei Volodin, Saleem Ashkar, Andrey Baranov, Daniel Stewart, and Oliver Weder. He has given numerous solo recitals and master classes in the leading halls of England, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Russia, Latvia, Georgia, Belorussia, Romania, Italy, and the US. Quint has performed at Lincoln center Every Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tally, Lincoln center with the New York Chamber Symphony, Metropolitan Symphony, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Leningrad State Orchestra, Orchestra of Classical and Contemporary Music, National Irish Symphony, the Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional do Brasilia and with the Symphony Orchestras of Latvia and Georgia among others. He is founder of InterHarmony Concert Series at Carnegie Hall New York. He has worked with distinguished conductors including Maxim Shostakovich, Paul Lustig Dunkel, Colman Pearce, Sidney Harth, Ravil Martinov, Yakov Bergman, and Ira Levin. Quint is an active chamber musician and has performed with such artists as Nikolai Znaider, Vadim Repin, Shlomo Mintz, Bela Davidovich, Bruno Canino, Julian Rachlin, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Sherban Lupu, Boris Kushnir, and Mikhail Kopelman. Quint’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Valse Sentimentale is featured in the 2022 Italian Netflix production of Fedeltà. Quint captured the gold medal in the March 2016 Global Music Awards for his recording, Matryoshka Blues, on the Blue Griffin label in three categories: instrumentalist, album, and new release, and was featured in the top five spring albums in Global Music Awards. Quint’s discography includes Live Cello Recitals and Valse Sentimentale on the Volshebnik Productions Label, and the 2014 release of Tempo Trapezio and 2016 release of Matryoshka Blues on the Blue Griffin Label. www.mishaquintcello.com

Basil Vendryes has been principal violist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra since 1993. He is a former member of the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Rochester Philharmonic orchestras. As violist with the Aurora String Quartet (1986-95), Vendryes performed extensively, including recitals in New York, London and Tokyo. He currently serves on the faculties of the Lamont School of Music of the University of Denver, the Quartet Program at SUNY Fredonia, New York, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. Vendryes has served on the faculties of Biola University (CA), California Summer Music at Pebble Beach, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Green Valley Music Festival, Montecito International Music Festival, Interharmony International Music Festival in Italy and the Music and More Summerfest in Trebinje, Herzegovina. For 18 years, he was the founder/director of the Colorado Young Sinfonia, comprised of some of the best young talent in the Denver area.
He has appeared as soloist with the Colorado, Aurora, Jefferson, Littleton, Lamont, Centennial, and Biola Symphonies, among others. Festival appearances include Spoleto, Heidelberg, Sunflower, Midsummer Mozart, Ouray, Lake Winnepesaukee, Las Vegas, Taconic and the Grand Tetons. Working with promising talent is one of his passions, and Vendryes has given classes in viola and chamber music throughout the United States. Vendryes has been a juror for several competitions, including the Sphinx Competition for African American and Latino string players and the Hong Kong International Music Festival. He has also served as guest principal violist for the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Vendryes has recorded for Columbia, Phillips, Decca, RCA, BIS and Nonesuch, as well as chamber music for the Ariel, Cadenza Music, Centaur, CRI and Naxos labels. Vendryes plays on a rare Italian viola made in 1887 by Carlo Cerruti.

The Ukrainian American violinist Oleh Krysa is long esteemed in the former USSR as a distinguished soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A prominent student of David Oistrakh, Krysa won major prizes in such international competitions as the Wieniawski (1962), Tchaikovsky (1966), and Montreal (1969), and was outright winner of the Paganini Competition (1963).
Oleh Krysa began his teaching career as chairman of the Violin Department at the Kiev Conservatory. In 1973 he took the same position at the Gnesins Musical and Pedagogical Institute in Moscow and, two years later, returned to the Moscow Conservatory as Professor of Violin, where he remained until 1988. Currently he is Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music and was a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of Arts in 2009. He is also an Honored Professor at Lviv Music Academy (Ukraine) and an Honored Member of the Japanese String Teachers Association.
In addition to his thriving solo career, Krysa was a leader of the Kiev Conservatory Quartet (1970-1973), the Leontovych Quartet (1999-2003), and the celebrated Beethoven String Quartet (1977-1987).
Oleh Krysa is also a champion of contemporary music, and has worked closely with Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Krzsyzstof Penderecki, Vyacheslav Artyomov, Sydney Hodkinson, Virko Baley, Myroslav Skoryk, Valentin Silvestrov, Yevhen Stankovych and Larry Sitsky. He has premiered a number of their works, and many of them have been written for and dedicated to him.
Mr. Krysa has recorded on the Melodiya, BIS, Triton, Olympia, TNC, Amadis, Polskie Nagranie, and Russian Disc labels.

Catherine Kautsky, Chair of Keyboard at Lawrence University, has been lauded by the New York Times as “a pianist who can play Mozart and Schubert as though their sentiments and habits of speech coincided exactly with hers … The music spoke directly to the listener, with neither obfuscation nor pretense.” She was the 2016 winner of the Lawrence Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2013 winner of the university’s Faculty Convocation Award, and in 2017 she was honored with the George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Chair in Music. Her recent recording of the Debussy Preludes, released by Centaur in September 2014, was said to “bring out all the power, majesty, and mystery of Debussy’s conception. “Ms. Kautsky, whose teachers have included Rosina Lhevinne, Gyorgy Sebok, Leon Fleisher, Martin Canin, and Gilbert Kalish, has concertized widely, performing in major halls such as Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Phillips Collection, Jordan Hall, and the Chicago Cultural Center. She has soloed with numerous orchestras, including the St. Louis Symphony and Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and appeared frequently on public radio. She has spent two sabbaticals in Paris and played abroad in France, England, Italy, Spain, Poland, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, Brazil, Australia, Russia, and South Africa. Known as both a solo and collaborative performer, Ms. Kautsky has performed chamber music at the Aspen, Tanglewood, and Grand Teton Festivals, presented masterclasses on five continents, and recently recorded the complete Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano. Ms. Kautsky, whose students have won prizes across the country and gone on to leading graduate programs, has taught at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music since 1987, with a 6 -year hiatus as piano faculty and chair of the Keyboard Dept. at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Known for her cross-disciplinary interests, she was awarded the Arts Institute Creative Arts Award at UW-Madison and has presented frequently at national conferences on such topics as “On the Trail of Chopin and George Sand,” “WWI: A Centenary Look at the Musical Wars, “and “Celebrating Debussy and the Arts du Spectacle” Her articles have appeared in Clavier, American Music Teacher, and International Piano.
Ms. Kautsky holds a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory, a master’s from the Juilliard School, and a doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Her new book, Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque, was issued by Rowman and Littlefield in September 2017.

Alla Milchtein is a collaborative pianist in New York City, maintaining an active performing career with vocal and instrumental partners and chamber ensembles. Currently Alla is a staff pianist at both The Juilliard School and the Mannes School of Music. She is also an Adjunct Professor at William Paterson University. Alla has performed at festivals throughout Europe, Mexico and the United States. Ms. Milchtein has served as a staff pianist at prestigious Competitions and also worked as coach at different Opera programs. Alla Milchtein has received both the Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance and the Master’s degree in Piano Performance and Chamber Music from Rotterdam Conservatory (The Netherlands), where she studied with Mila Baslawskaja. Ms. Milchtein has also pursued her Professional Studies in Collaborative Piano at the Mannes School of Music, where she studied with Cristina Stanescu. During her studies she was awarded a scholarship and was also a recipient of the “excellence in accompanying” award. Ms. Milchtein has been awarded a fellowship from COJECO BluePrint to record an album of solo piano music of Jewish composers from around the world titled "Musical Journeys through the Jewish Diaspora”. Recently Alla has two new releases: Album titled “Al Menos Cantos” songs of Jack Délano, with mezzo soprano Laura Virella, recorded on Lexicon label. Another album “ A Portrait”, works by Grazyna Bacewicz with violinist Kinga Augustin, recorded on Centaur.

Young Artists

Aidan Ip, 24, began studying the violin at the age of six. Born and raised in St. Louis, he comes from a family of musicians who fostered his love of the instrument from an early age. A passionate chamber musician, Aidan has studied string quartet repertoire with chamber musicians including former and current members of the Pacifica, Tokyo, and Vermeer String Quartets. In 2019, he also studied at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, where he was coached by the world-renowned Tackács String Quartet. Aidan has spent multiple summers as a student of the Aspen Music Festival and School where he studied primarily with distinguished pedagog Robert Lipsett. Aidan has also performed in masterclasses for eminent violinists including Andres Cardenas, James Ehnes and Vadim Repin. He is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, where he studied with Professor Danielle Belen. Currently based in Boston, he is pursuing his Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music with Professor Ayano Ninomiya. Aidan plays a beautiful violin made in 1774 by Tomaso Eberle.

Benjamin Keating is an American classical pianist living in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Keating is currently studying Piano Performance with an emphasis in Collaborative Piano with Dr. Catherine Kautsky at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. Born in Northeast Florida and raised in Monticello, IL, Keating started his piano studies at age 5. From there, he studied with Dr. Chee Hyeon Choi through the Piano Laboratory Program at the University of Illinois from ages 9-12 and with Kathryn Fries in Champaign, IL from ages 13-17, before enrolling at Lawrence University. Keating has played at summer festivals such as the InterHarmony International Music Festival, Young Artists World Piano Festival, and Mostly Modern Festival.
Keating is an active performer, devout collaborator, and a lifelong musician. At the piano, Keating continues to play a wide variety of the classical repertoire, with a focus on the music written after the turn of the 20th century. He champions contemporary music, exploring the works of living composers and the works of his peers.

Isabel Chen , 19, is currently a sophomore at the Eastman School of Music where she is a member of The Maple Quartet, studying violin performance with Oleh Krysa. Prior to attending Eastman, she studied at the Music institute of Chicago as a Scholarship Fellow at its Academy program. She has been a participant of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Interlochen Arts Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and InterHarmony International Music Festival.
Isabel is active in both solo and chamber music competitions. She was a winner of the Dr. Robert Stanger Concerto Competition and the DePaul Concerto Festival, receiving honors as well from the Walgreens National Concerto Competition and the CSO Crain-Maling Young Artists Competition. Isabel was a semifinalist in the 2021 Fischoff National Chamber Competition, a finalist at the 2019 St. Paul String Quartet Competition, and Grand Prize winner in the A.N. & Pearl G. Barnett Chamber Competition. She’s also been broadcasted on WFMT’s Introductions for both solo and chamber programs.
Isabel has had the opportunity to perform in masterclasses for notable musicians including Boris Kuschnir, Guy Braunstein, Donald Weilerstein, Itamar Zorman, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Sarah Chang. Her most significant teachers include Mrs. Almita Vamos, Mathias Tacke, Cyrus Forough, and Jasmine Lin.

Thomas Soice began playing cello with Lisa Vosdoganes in kindergarten at Houston’s oldest elementary strings programs. He continued to study in Houston with Jose Rocha, Mark Yee, and Barry Sills. Thomas also enjoyed performing vocally, serving for three years as a Choral Scholar at The Church of the Epiphany. Thomas completed Mouth Royal University’s Advanced Performance Program, where he studied with Arnold Choi. He has enjoyed performing in Italy, first in Schlern, with the Semper Music Festival and in Aqui Terme with the InterHarmony International Music Festival. For three years, Thomas has studied with Misha Quint and has flourished in the InterHarmony Independent Artist Mastery Program. Thomas would like to thank Misha and everyone at InterHarmony for their continued love and support

At the age of 5, Victoria Sun had her first piano lesson and found out that the piano is her passion. Since learning piano, Victoria has held a solo recital every year and has held it four times. She participated in the MTAC Orange County Branch competition and won 1st prize in her age group every year. She got 1st prize in concerto division of GOCAA competition. She also got the third place in the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition. Victoria is now studying piano with Prof. Ning An. She used to study with Dmitry Rachmanov, Joan Lai and Beatrice Long. Victoria does not only enjoy playing the piano, but is also very fond of coding and mathematics. She hopes to combine computers and piano in the future to create better music for everyone.

Program

Schumann: Piano Quintet, Op.44
Bach: Violin Partita No.2
Bach: Cello Suite No.2
Liszt Liebestraum & Valse oubliée No.1
Ravel: Tzigane
Walker: Piano Sonata No.2
Ysaÿe: Solo Violin Sonata No.6

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