This preview has been provided by the Eastern Music Festival.
EMF Piano Faculty perform masterworks for piano. Featuring Gideon Rubin, Diane Walsh, and William Wolfram
About the artists:
Dr. Gideon Rubin has a multi-faceted career that encompasses performing as a soloist, conductor, as a chamber musician, as an orchestral keyboardist, and as a composer. As soloist, he has performed with such orchestras as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Classical Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the New England Conservatory Youth Orchestra (on a tour of Israel), and at the Eastern Music Festival where he teaches and performs in the Summers.In recent seasons, Dr. Rubin has performed at the American Church and American Cathedral in Paris, Symphony Space in New York City, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Myra Hess Foundation Concerts in Chicago, the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, and on the Los Angeles County Museum’s “Sundays Live” Radio Broadcast Series. He has performed chamber music with Julia Fischer, David Jolley, Lynn Harrel, Corey Cerovsek, Timothy Fain, and William deRosa. During the 2001-2002 season, he was the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet. From 1997-2000 he was the pianist/keyboardist for the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, performing in Europe and the US. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from Harvard University, a Masters in Music from Boston University’s School of the Arts, and a Doctorate from the University of Southern California. His main teachers have been Norman Krieger, Edward Aldwell, Russell Sherman, Wha Kyung Byun, and Benjamin Pasternack. He has served as visiting professor at Pomona College, and now serves as Music Director and as piano faculty member at the Los Angeles Music and Art School. He is also the founder and Music Director of the LAPCA Youth Orchestra which has performed at Disney Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Broad Stage.He has performed many new works in premieres, including some of his own compositions. His own works include compositions for voice, cello, chamber orchestra, piano, and electronic media. He has recorded a solo CD of 20th Century American music (available on cdbaby.com), and a CD of orchestral music by Steven Mackey on the RCA-BMG label as a member of the New World Symphony. His recording of piano quartets of Dvorak and Martinu with the Garth Newel Piano Quartet won “Best Classical Album of 2004” in the Just Plain Folks Music Awards. In addition to his life as a musician, Dr. Rubin has studied Chinese Meditative and Martial arts for fifteen years. He is an assistant instructor at the Taoist Institute in Los Angeles studying under the tutelage of Grandmaster Sijo Carl Totton.
With a reputation as a performer of “romantic sweep and arching lyricism” (The New York Times) and “a pianist with superb technique,” (The Boston Globe) Diane Walsh has created an international career of distinction. She has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Austin, Syracuse and Delaware Symphonies, among others. Ms. Walsh won the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and was winner of first prize at the Munich ARD International Competition. A prizewinner in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, she also won that competition?s chamber music award. Currently, she is a member of the piano faculty at Mannes College The New School for Music in New York City.
American pianist William Wolfram was a silver medalist at both the William Kapell and the Naumburg International Piano Competitions, and a bronze medalist at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. A versatile recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician, he has won the respect of musicians and critics across the country and abroad. Wolfram has several recordings on the Naxos label, has played recitals in cities throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe, and has performed with dozens of the finest orchestras in the world. His concerto debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony under the baton of Leonard Slatkin was the first in a long succession of appearances with the San Francisco, Saint Louis, Indianapolis, Seattle and New Jersey symphonies, among many others.
The Eastern Music Festival’s mission is to promote musical enrichment, excellence, professional collaboration, innovation, and diversity through a nationally-recognized teaching program, music festival, concerts, and other programs which will enhance the quality of life, health, and vitality of our region. The Eastern Music Festival and School, founded in 1961 in Greensboro, North Carolina by Sheldon Morgenstern, is an internationally-renowned classical music festival and institute for young musicians that runs for five weeks each summer. The institute accepts students ages 14 through 22 from around the country and the world. The EMF faculty consists of world-class performing artists selected from top orchestras and music schools nationally and internationally. Led by music director Gerard Schwarz, the Eastern Music Festival and School celebrates its 51st season in 2012.
