Concertante

Biography

After more than a decade before the public Concertante has established itself as a chamber ensemble that combines in equal measure world class virtuosity and an adventurous willingness to explore and enhance the sextet repertoire. The group performs in varied combinations of instrumentalists in a wide array of repertoire, ranging from works by established masters to less commonly performed composers.  As solo performers who have won important national and international music competitions, they have appeared in such major venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, London's Royal Festival Hall, and Shanghai’s Grand Theatre. In addition to its adventurous One Plus Five commissioning project Concertante has always had a strong commitment to new music, and in his review of the final performance in the One Plus Five series, Allan Kozinn of The New York Times wrote:

“The ensemble closed its concert with a beautifully focused account of the Brahms String Sextet No. 1 in B flat. Its reading of the slow movement - an exquisite set of variations - was particularly magical.”                                                                                  
(May 19, 2010)

Since its founding it has performed the works of such noted contemporary composers as Josef Bardanashvili, Justine Chen, Tina Davison, Steven R. Gerber, David Ludwig, Jan Radzynski, Sheila Silver, and Oded Zehavi. It has also offered infrequently performed chamber works by such celebrated composers as Enesco, John Adams, Schoenberg, Martinů, Korngold, and Frank Bridge, among others. Throughout its career, Concertante has been active in the recording studio and has received high critical praise for its CDs on the internationally distributed Helicon label.  Its most recent recording for this label features Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s String Sextet in D Major, Op. 10 and Frank Bridge’s String Sextet in E-Flat Major (1912). For the 2011-12 season, Concertante returns to perform its regular series at New York’s Merkin Hall and in Harrisburg, PA at the Rose Lehrman Arts Center.

Website: http://www.concertante.org

Individual Biographies

Cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach enjoys an active career as a soloist and chamber musician. Recent solo performances include recitals at the La Jolla Chamber Music Society and the Caramoor Festival, and concerto appearances with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Charleston and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras. Her recordings of the Rachmaninoff and Franck Sonatas with pianist Fabio Bidini are released on the Encore Performance label. Ms. Gerlach has appeared as a guest artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, and numerous festivals including Marlboro, Caramoor and Aspen. Current activities include a tour with Musicians from Marlboro, performing solo Bach with NYC Ballet Principal Dancer Damian Woetzel at the Caramoor Festival, and chamber music at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition, Ms. Gerlach performs frequently in New York City and throughout the country as a member of Trio Solisti with violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Jon Klibonoff. Born in New York City, Ms. Gerlach studied with Aldo Parisot at Yale University and The Juilliard School.

Equally accomplished as soloist and chamber musician, violinist and violist Ara Gregorian made his solo debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1997 and his New York recital debut in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 1996. Mr. Gregorian has made chamber music appearances at New York's Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall as well as having appeared as recitalist at Detroit's Henry Ford Centennial Library and Harvard University's Payne Hall. Additional orchestral appearances have included performances with the Shanghai, Lansing (MI), Pueblo (CO), Michigan State, and Las Cruces (NM) symphony orchestras. Mr. Gregorian is the founder and Artistic Director of the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival of Eastern North Carolina and has performed at the Santa Fe, El Paso, and Skaneateles music festivals. In 1992 Mr. Gregorian entered The Juilliard School where he studied with Joseph Fuchs, Robert Mann, and Harvey Shapiro and received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. He has been a member of the violin faculty at East Carolina University since 1998.

Israeli cellist, Zvi Plesser has performed as soloist to critical acclaim throughout North and Central America, Europe and Israel. At the age of 17 he made his U.S. debut with Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman in Carnegie Hall. He has performed with leading orchestras, among them the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Mr. Plesser has given recitals in France, Germany, Sweden and Finland. He has participated in many festivals, including the Marlboro Festival, the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, the Israel Festival, Lapland Festspel of Sweden and the Montpellier Festival in France. Plesser is a graduate of The Juilliard School as a student of Zara Nelsova and himself is currently on the faculty of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. He has also studied with Zvi Harel and David Soyer.

Cellist Sophie Shao has established herself as a prominent soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Ms. Shao received top prizes at the 2001 Rostropovich International Violoncello Competition and the XII International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2002, as well as the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She made her official orchestral debut with the Houston Symphony at age eleven, and has since performed as soloist with numerous orchestras. Ms. Shao’s many festival appearances include Marlboro, Caramoor, Bridgehampton, Sarasota, Music from Angel Fire, Saratoga, Bard and Ravinia. She has been a member of Chamber Music Society Two, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's program for emerging young artists. At thirteen, she enrolled at The Curtis Institute of Music. After graduating from Curtis, Sophie continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, graduating with a B.A. in religious studies from Yale College, where she was also awarded the Louis Sudler Prize for the Creative and Performing Arts. In May of 2001, Sophie received her M.M. from the Yale School of Music.

Israeli violinist Ittai Shapira’s 2002-03 engagements included solo performances with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, the BBC Concert Orchestra, Philharmonia, Budapest Symphony, Russian Philharmonic, and Shanghai Symphony. He has also appeared as soloist with the Czech National Symphony, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Cape Town Philharmonic, and Jerusalem Symphony to name but a few, as well as touring with the English Chamber Orchestra and Yuri Bashmet. He has premiered works by Berio, Bunch, Rechtman, Heath and Shulamit Ran. Festival appearances include Aspen, Ravinia, Schleswig-Holstein and the International Concerto Festival at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Along with his colleague Hagai Shaham, Mr. Shapira is the co-founder of the Ilona Feher Foundation for the nurturing and promotion of young Israeli violinists. After studying with Ms. Feher in Israel he studied with Dorothy DeLay and Robert Mann at The Juilliard School. Mr. Shapira has recorded for Meridian, EMI Classics and Sanctuary Classics. His discography includes two sonata albums, an album of encore pieces and six concerto discs; his most recent release has been named disc of the month by MusicWeb.

Violist Rachel Shapiro is an active chamber musician, teacher, and recitalist. As a recitalist she has appeared in New York, Baltimore, Austria, Denmark and Portugal. She has participated in many festivals, including the Kfar Blum Music Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, The Next Generation Festival, The Ravinia Institute for Young Artists, Academie musicale de Villecroze, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Mozarteum Summer Academy. Last season's performances included guest appearances with The Jerusalem Trio, Avalon Quartet and a Musicians from Ravinia Tour. In addition to her performing activities, Ms. Shapiro commits herself to music education, holding positions as a Teaching Artist for the New York Philharmonic School Partnership Program and as faculty of the Lucy Moses School for Music and Dance. Her teachers have included Toby Appel, Heidi Castleman, Sylvia Rosenberg, George Taylor, and Harvey Shapiro. Ms. Shapiro received her both her Bachelor and Masters degrees from The Juilliard School. This past year Ms. Shapiro furthered her studies abroad under the tutelage of Tabea Zimmerman with the support of a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant.

Violinist Xiao-Dong Wang entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at the age of ten. Mr. Wang won the First Prize in the Menuhin International Violin Competition and the First Prize in the Wieniawski-Lipinski International Violin Competition at the ages of thirteen and fifteen. During his 1985 trip to England, he was brought to the attention of Dorothy DeLay of The Juilliard School who arranged for him to begin a four-year scholarship beginning in 1986. Mr. Wang has soloed with orchestras around the world, including the Royal Philharmonic in London, the London Mozart Players, Adelaide, Perth, Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Sydney Opera Orchestra. He has recorded the Bartok Concerto No.2 and Szymanowski Concerto No.1 for Polygram records. He has also appeared performing on both violin and viola in chamber music concerts at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Aspen, Ravinia and in many other festival and musical events worldwide.

Critical Acclaim

Gramophone

Schoenberg                Verklarte Nacht, Op.4
R. Strauss                  Metamorphosen
R. Strauss                  String Sextet from “Capriccio”

Zachary Lewis

"Concertante is making a name for itself specializing in the often under-served music written for larger string ensembles, anything from quintet to nonet. Though perhaps not the best indicator of how unusual Concertante’s musical taste is, this excellent disc, the group’s second, makes a defining statement about how firm is its grasp on its chosen repertoire."

Columbus Dispatch
Barbara Zuck

"Among this group's many attributes are its exemplary balance and flawless ensemble. Another is how well-matched the players are, not just in the way they approach their work but in the very timbre produced on their instruments. They almost sound as if they are playing a family by one maker, so keenly have they sought to achieve a harmonious sound."

American Record Guide

"Lucky Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to have such superb chamber group based there: They’re graduates of Juillard who in 1995 decide to stay together. And judging by this album, warmly recorded at New York City’s Academy of Arts and Letters by Max Wilcox, they got it all. This is as good a recording of the string sextet version of the Schoenberg as I know. Technically the players are superb. So are balances which allow each line to function effectively whether about harmony, tone color or degree of intensity. The flow and shape they give the piece is natural and ungimmicky. Often I became keenly aware of how well they listen to one another as they capture the work’s broad range of emotions. The players’ instruments too are quite special, each with its own unique tone color yet blending so well with all the others."