Press Release
For Immediate Release:
December 19, 2005
NEC’s Weilerstein Trio to Give World Premiere of Trivia, Commissioned from Conservatory Colleague Michael Gandolfi
Free Concert January 25 in NEC’s Jordan Hall Coincides with Release of Trio’s New Dvorak Disc
New England Conservatory’s Weilerstein Trio (Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, piano; Donald Weilerstein, violin; Alisa Weilerstein, cello) will present the world premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s Trivia at its Jordan Hall concert, January 25, 2006. The trio commissioned the new work from Gandolfi, who like Vivian and Donald Weilerstein, is a member of the Conservatory faculty.
The 8 p.m. concert also celebrates the January 24 release of the Weilersteins’ new Koch International recording of Dvorak Trios.
The title of Gandolfi’s new work, Trivia, “derives from its Latin roots: tri- three, via – road or path and its obvious reference to the piano trio and the three movement form,” says the composer. Like several of his works, Trivia took its inspiration from a literary source—in this case, Richard Wolfson’s book Simply Einstein. The first movement, Multiverse, reflects “a fascinating chapter about our universe being ‘but one small branch of a possibly infinite multiverse.’” The music, “in its contrapuntal developments of a single theme, describes several multiverses or branching sections.” Similarly, the second movement, Time Traveler, “was inspired by Wolfson’s explanations of Einstein’s ‘reference frames,’ time dilation concepts and time travel.” The last movement, Coursing, “is a fast-paced finale.”
Surrounding the Gandolfi on the program will be trios by Dvorak and Schumann.
The Weilerstein Trio, NEC’s piano trio in residence, first performed together publicly at the Round Top Festival in Texas when daughter Alisa was six years old. Highlights of the current and past seasons include concerts at Lincoln Center in New York City and at prominent venues in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, St. Louis, St. Paul, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston. The trio made their London debut last season at the Royal Academy of Music. They have been guests on the nationally broadcast radio program St. Paul Sunday, and NPR's Performance Today. Alisa and Vivian were featured last November in More Magazine and on the Jane Pauley Show in stories about mother/daughter professional teams. (For more on the Weilerstein Trio, visit the website beginning in January: www.weilersteintrio.com)
Donald Weilerstein, founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet from 1969 to 1989, holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin at NEC. Early in his career, he won both the Munich International Competition for violin and piano duo and the Young Concert Artists Auditions. With the Cleveland Quartet, he toured the world and made many highly regarded recordings, including seven that earned Grammy nominations and Best of the Year awards from Time and Stereo Review. Weilerstein has taught and performed at many major American and European music festivals, including Caramoor, Aspen, Ravinia, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Salzburg, Lucerne, and Perlman Music Program. His students have won prizes in major international competitions, including Munich and the Naumburg and many now hold positions in major orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Several string quartets he has coached have won prizes at such major chamber music competitions as the Coleman, Fischoff, and Banff. He also teaches at the Juilliard School.
Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, acclaimed by The New York Times as "a splendid pianist," is on the piano and chamber music faculties at NEC and also directs NEC’s Professional Piano Trio Training Program. She is a frequent collaborator with many eminent artists and ensembles. She performs regularly with her husband Donald Weilerstein as the Weilerstein Duo, at venues such as Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. The duo has recorded the complete works of Ernest Bloch for violin and piano for Arabesque Records, earning rave reviews and inclusion as a "must" on Fanfare's annual "Want List". They have also recorded the Janacek, Dohnanyi, and Enesco Sonatas for Arabesque, and, most recently, the complete sonatas of Robert Schumann for Azica Records.The pianist has performed at the major American music festivals, including the Marlboro,Aspen, Chamber Music West, Music Academy of the West, the Perlman Music Program, Norfolk, Sarasota, Roundtop,LaJolla, Yellow Barn and Blue Hill. She was also a guest artist at the Young Musicians Festival in Israel, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and at the Daniel Days in Amsterdam. She is in demand for master classes and residencies throughout the country.
Alisa Weilerstein is internationally acclaimed asa soloist and chamber musician. Her highly praised debut disc, recorded with Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, was released on EMI Classics in 2000. That same year, she was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Ms. Weilerstein has performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Bournemouth, Cincinnati, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Tokyo, and San Francisco, among many others. During the 2006-07 seasons she will appear twice with the New York Philharmonic, with Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta. She was chosen by Carnegie Hall to be an "ECHO" Rising Star in 2001, and she is an alumna of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society II. Born in 1982, she made her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at age 13 and her Carnegie Hall debut two years later. Ms. Weilerstein holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University. (Check out Alisa’s website at: www.alisaweilerstein.com)
Michael Gandolfi, who began his involvement in music as a self-taught guitarist playing rock and jazz, received his B.M. and M.M. degrees in composition from New England Conservatory. He received additional training at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, the Composers Conference, and the Tanglewood Music Center. Recipient of many awards and grants from the Fromm, Guggenheim, and Koussevitzky Foundations, Gandolfi has composed works for numerous orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His widely praised Impressions from "The Garden of Cosmic Speculation" was premiered in August 2004 by Robert Spano and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and was subsequently performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman. In October, his Plain Song, Fantastic Dances, commissioned by the St. Botolph Club, was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. (For more on Michael Gandolfi, visit his website at http://www.michaelgandolfi.com)
The Weilerstein Trio’s concert is free and open to the public. The program follows:
Dvorak: G-minor Trio, op. 26
World premiere of Michael Gandolfi's Piano Trio Trivia
Schumann: D-minor Trio, op. 63
For more information, call the NEC Concert Line at (617) 585-1122 or visit NEC on the web at www.newenglandconservatory.edu/concerts
ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.
The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.
NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 100-year old, beautifully restored concert hall. These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes. Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.
NEC is co-founder and educational partner of “From the Top,” a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by more than two hundred stations throughout the United States.