Tessa Lark, Violin
Roman Rabinovich, Piano
SCHUBERT Violin Sonata in D Major, D. 384
TESSA LARK Appalachian Fantasy (NY Premiere)
LUTOSŁAWSKI Partita
MICHAEL TORKE Spoon Bread (World Premiere, commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
BRAHMS Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108
Encore:
C. SCHUMANN Romance in D-flat Major, Op. 22, No. 1
Lead support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Public support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional funding is provided by members of Carnegie Hall's Composer Club.
Distinctive Debuts is supported by endowment gifts from The Lizabeth and Frank Newman Charitable Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
This short, sun-filled sonata is from a set of three that Schubert wrote in his late teens, probably for the musical soirées that were held regularly in the family home in Vienna. The composer's earliest works for violin and piano, they prefigure the monumental C-Major Fantasy of 1827.
A self-described "classical music nerd" from childhood, Michael Torke belatedly acquired an appreciation for pop music while growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Spoon Bread, newly written for Tessa Lark, illustrates his knack for integrating popular and classical elements in an eclectic and accessible style.
Lutosławski established his reputation in the late-20th century with such works as the tone poem Mi-parti, the dreamy Les espaces du sommeil for baritone and orchestra, and the richly colored Third Symphony. Although its language is unmistakably modern, the Partita alludes to 18th-century forms and procedures.
Growing up in Kentucky with a banjo-playing father, Tessa Lark became proficient in Appalachian-style fiddling as a child. She regularly features traditional bluegrass music on her recitals, as well as works such as Appalachian Fantasy that pay homage to the folk music of her native state.
Brahms wrote the last of his three violin sonatas in the late 1880s, nearly a decade after his great D-Major Violin Concerto. Dark and impassioned, the music may reflect the platonic love affair that Brahms had long carried on with pianist Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann's widow.
Winner of a prestigious 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Tessa Lark is one of the most
captivating artistic voices of her time. She is praised consistently by critics and
audiences alike for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, captivating
interpretations, and genre-defying programming and performance. She is also a recipient of
a 2014 career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and
Visual Arts, and continues to expand her relationships with orchestras and presenters
worldwide.
Ms. Lark has been a soloist with many renowned orchestras, including the Louisville
Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony
Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra. She is a frequent recitalist and has performed for such notable series
as San Francisco Performances, WQXR's Midday Masterpieces, Troy Chromatic Concerts,
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Music at the Gardner, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts,
Ravinia Festival's Bennett Gordon Hall Classics, and Chamber Music Tulsa.
A passionate chamber musician, Ms. Lark has participated in many celebrated festivals;
among them are Marlboro, Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Music@Menlo, and the Perlman Music Program.
Her piano trio, Modêtre, took top prize in the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music
Competition.
Ms. Lark was named silver medalist of the 2014 International Violin Competition of
Indianapolis, making her the highest-ranked American-born winner in the competition's
history. She also won the prestigious Naumburg International Violin Competition in
2012, and first prize in the 2008 Irving M. Klein International Strings Competition.
Inspired by her Kentucky roots, Ms. Lark performs bluegrass and Appalachian music
regularly, including a collaboration with Mark O'Connor on his CD MOC4. She also plays jazz
violin, most recently performing with the Juilliard Jazz Ensemble at Dizzy's Club
Coca-Cola in New York City.
Ms. Lark's mentors include Cathy McGlasson, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Miriam Fried, and Lucy
Chapman. She is a graduate of New England Conservatory and is currently enrolled in
Juilliard's artist diploma program, studying with Sylvia Rosenberg, Ida Kavafian, and
Daniel Phillips. Ms. Lark plays the 1683 "ex-Gingold" Stradivari violin, on generous
loan from the Josef Gingold Fund for the International Violin Competition of
Indianapolis.
The eloquent young pianist Roman Rabinovich is the winner of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein
International Piano Master Competition. He has performed throughout Europe and the US in
such prestigious venues as Leipzig's Gewandhaus, London's Wigmore Hall, the Great Hall of
Moscow Conservatory, Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Millennium Stage at Washington,
DC's Kennedy Center.
Mr. Rabinovich is also a composer and visual artist. In summer 2016, he embarked upon the
Haydn Sonata Project, presenting recitals of Haydn's complete keyboard sonatas at the
Lammermuir Festival in Scotland. Highlights of Mr. Rabinovich's 2016-2017 season include
Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466, with the Roma Tre Orchestra; Beethoven's
Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 37, with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra; and recitals as part
of the Shriver Hall Concert and The Gilmore's Rising Stars series. He will return to Europe
for concerts in 2017, including a Mozart concerto with the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra and Sir Roger Norrington, and a recital at London's Wigmore Hall.
Mr. Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic Orchestra debut under Zubin Mehta at age 10,
having immigrated to Israel a year before from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He was the first of
three young pianists to be championed by Sir András Schiff, who selected him for his
Building Bridges series. He has performed with all of the major Israeli orchestras, as well
as Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra,
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others. In spring 2014, Mr. Rabinovich toured with
the Haifa Symphony Orchestra throughout the US, performing four different piano concertos
on 30 concerts. He recently recorded ballets by Ravel, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky for the
Orchid Classics label.
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