Press Release
For Immediate Release:
March 8, 2006
NEC’s Weilerstein Duo Celebrates 30th Wedding and Musical Anniversary with Jordan Hall Concert, April 6
Performance Coincides with Reissue of Duo’s Recorded Works
Violinist Donald Weilerstein and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, who are husband and wife, NEC faculty, and the musicians of the Weilerstein Duo, will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their personal and artistic partnership in a Jordan Hall concert, Thursday April 6 at 8 p.m. Their program will include several of the rareties by Eastern European composers that they have made their specialty.
Coinciding with the celebratory concert is the reissue of the Duo’s widely-admired Arabesque recordings featuring works by Dohnanyi, Janacek, Enesco, and Bloch as well as its Azica disc of the Robert Schumann Sonatas. Of particular interest is the two-volume Arabesque set of the complete violin/piano works by Ernest Bloch that was praised at its original release by Fanfare as a “must” on the journal’s “Want List.” The album has continued to serve as a reference standard and several years after the first review Fanfare critic Walter Simmons wrote: “…other recorded performances that embrace and project the full range of Bloch’s passionate intensity without embarrassment or any compromise in precision or accuracy include the Weilerstein Duo’s reading of the Violin Sonata No. 1.”
The Weilersteins met at the Aspen Festival and formed their duo in 1976. Music continues to be a family affair with Donald and Vivian also performing professionally as the Weilerstein Trio with their 23-year old cellist daughter, Alisa, a winner of an Avery Fisher career grant. Their son Joshua, a violinist, is a freshman this year at NEC.
Since its inception, the Duo has given high praised performances at Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Merkin Hall in New York City; at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.; and in major cities throughout the United States, Europe and Israel. The Duo returns regularly to the Yellow Barn Music Festival and the Perlman Music Program and has participated in the festivals at Marlboro, Aspen, Norfolk, La Jolla, and Kneisel Hall. They have been guest artists at the Verbier Festival, the Young Musician’s Festival in Israel, and the Daniel Days in Holland.
Dedicated teachers, both Weilersteins are on the faculty at NEC. Donald is one of the most sought after violin teachers in the world; Vivian is on the piano and chamber music faculty and directs the Conservatory’s highly selective Professional Piano Trio Training Program.
Winner of the both the Munich and Young Concert Artists Competition, Donald Weilerstein was the founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet—a position he held for 20 years. With that ensemble, he toured the world and made numerous recordings of which seven won Grammy nominations and Best of the Year awards from Time and Stereo Review.
Praised by The New York Times as "a splendid pianist",Vivian Hornik Weilerstein has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. She is a frequent collaborator with many of today's most eminent artists and ensembles. The pianist has performed at major American music festivals, including Chamber Music West, Music Academy of the West, Sarasota, Roundtop,and Blue Hill. She appeared recently as a soloist with the Kansas City Symphony and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale di Torino, and has toured throughout Europe and Japan.
Both Weilersteins are in demand for master classes and residencies throughout the country.
The Weilerstein Duo’s concert is free and open to the public. The program follows:
Janacek: Sonata
Dvorak: Romantic Pieces
Bartok: Second Sonata
Bloch: Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano “Poeme mystique”
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 National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.