This preview has been provided by the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival.
The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival closes the 2013-2014 season with its Thrilling Season Finale concert on Sunday, April 13 at 3:00 p.m. in the Smedes-Emory Parlor of Saint Mary’s School. This Four Seasons in the Triangle concert, presented in association with the Smedes Parlor Concert Series, will feature internationally-renowned musicians Thomas Sauer, piano; Soovin Kim, violin; Elina Vähälä, violin; Ara Gregorian, viola; and Zvi Plesser, cello. The performance will include Bach/Mozart’s Preludes and Fugues for String Trio, Bloch’s Piano Quintet No. 1 and Dvorák’s Piano Quintet in A Major.
The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival brings world-class musicians to eastern North Carolina and beyond for concerts, master classes, interactive community outreach, a children’s residency, Next Generation residencies, Next Gen on the Road tours and the Four Seasons Family Night. Highlights of past seasons include more than 126 public concerts, 280 master classes, two performances at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and a six-concert tour of Israel.
“I look forward to returning to Smedes-Emory Parlor at Saint Mary’s School for this special season finale concert,” said Ara Gregorian, festival founder and artistic director. “The combination of our world-renowned guest artists and the thrilling music of Bach, Mozart, Bloch and Dvorák make this an event that is not-to-be-missed.”
Director of the Mannes Beethoven Institute, Sauer is highly sought-after as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. He has performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and at the Wolf Trap Center, and has appeared at the Marlboro, Seattle, Portland, El Paso Pro Musica and Salt Bay festivals. Sauer has recorded for the MSR Classics, Musical Heritage Society, Centaur and Arabesque labels and is on the piano faculty at Vassar College and the Mannes College of Music.
First-prize winner of the Paganini International Competition, Kim has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Seoul Philharmonic. He is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and is a professor of violin at Stony Brook University and the Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University.
Vähälä made her concerto debut at the age of twelve with the Sinfonia Lahti in Finland. She is a first-prize winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and has performed as soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Simon Bolivar Orchestra and the Israel Camerata. Vähälä is a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Founder and artistic director of the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Gregorian has appeared at festivals throughout the United States, Finland, Holland, Canada and Puerto Rico; has performed extensively as a member of chamber music groups such as the Daedalus Quartet, Concertante and the Arcadian Trio; and is Distinguished Professor of Violin at East Carolina University.
Plesser has performed to critical acclaim throughout North and Central America, Europe and Israel. He has performed with the Israel Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and has participated at the Marlboro, Cervantino (Mexico), Lapland (Sweden), and the Montpellier (France) festivals. Plesser is on the cello faculty at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival is in residence at East Carolina University.
Ticket prices are $25 for the public and $10 for students. Tickets can be purchased at www.ecuarts.com or by calling 1-800-ECU-ARTS. For information on how to support Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival programs and outreach, call 252-328-1268.
For more information about the festival, repertoire, guest artists or outreach go to www.ecu.edu/fourseasons, or call 252-328-6019.
