Concertante
Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello; Ara Gregorian, violin/viola; Zvi Plesser, cello; Ittai Shapira, violin; Rachel Shapiro, viola; Xiao-Dong Wang, violin
The Ensemble
In the past decade Concertante has acquired a sheen, warmth, and polish only a few ensembles ever achieve. Comprised of a core of six virtuoso string players, the group performs in varied combinations of instrumentalists. As solo performers who have won major national and international music competitions, they have graced the premier stages of the world from New York's Carnegie Hall to London's Royal Festival Hall to Shanghai's Grand Theatre. Concertante has performed a wide array of repertoire ranging from works by established masters to less commonly performed composers. The ensemble has an interest in furthering the cause of new music and this season will be launching a new series entitled One Plus Five, a series of six world premieres by Lowell Liebermann, Tigran Mansurian, Gabriela Frank, Shulamit Ran, Richard Danielpour, and Kevin Puts. To date, Concertante has premiered the works of 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, Martinu and Schulhoff. As an ensemble, Concertante has performed across America, gathering rave reviews from such publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, and appearing on Minnesota Public Radio's St. Paul Sunday. Concertante performs regularly at Merkin Hall in New York City as well as being the Resident Chamber Music Ensemble of the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg, PA.
Alexis Pia Gerlach
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. Ms. Gerlach performs as a member of Trio Solisti with violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Jon Klibonoff, with performances last year including appearances on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center, the Washington Performing Arts Society at The Kennedy Center and at Weill Hall. Their recordings of Brahms Trios and the Pulitzer Prize winning “Tempest Fantasy” by Paul Moravec have been met by critical acclaim. Born in New York City, Ms. Gerlach studied with Aldo Parisot at Yale University and The Juilliard School.
Ara Gregorian
Violinist and violist Ara Gregorian is equally accomplished as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He has appeared in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Merkin Hall, and has performed as soloist with the Boston Pops and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras as well as with numerous orchestras throughout the United States. Mr. Gregorian is the founder and Artistic Director of the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival of Eastern North Carolina and has appeared at the Santa Fe, El Paso, Skaneateles, Cactus Pear, Wintergreen, and Garth Newel festivals. He made his recital debut in 1996 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and has also performed as a recitalist at Detroit’s Henry Ford Centennial Library and Harvard University’s Payne Hall. Mr. Gregorian studied with Joseph Fuchs, Harvey Shapiro, and Robert Mann at The Juilliard School where he received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. He has been a member of the violin and viola faculty at East Carolina University since 1998, and currently resides in Greenville, NC, and New York City.
Zvi Plesser
Israeli cellist Zvi Plesser enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber music player and teacher. As soloist 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, under conductors Zubin Mehta, Sir Nevile Marriner and Sergiu Comissiona. He was a member of the Huberman String Quartet and is a founding member of Concertante. He has participated in many festivals, including the Marlboro Festival, the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, Kuhmo Festival in Finland and the Montpellier Festival in France. Mr. Plesser is a graduate of The Juilliard School as a student of Zara Nelsova. His principal teachers have included Zvi Harel in Israel and David Soyer in the United States. Mr. Plesser has taught at the North Carolina School of the Arts and is currently on the faculty of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
Ittai Shapira
Israeli violinist Ittai Shapira’s recent appearances have included solo performances with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Philharmonia, Detroit Symphony, Russian Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, the Czech National Symphony, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Cape Town Philharmonic, and Jerusalem Symphony, 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, and Schleswig-Holstein. 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, Quartz, EMI Classics, and Sony/BMG Sanctuary Classics. Special upcoming projects include a concerto for violin, narrator and orchestra by Glen Roven with Brooke Shields (to be released by Sony/BMG), a double concerto with percussionist Evelyn Glennie and his own Violin Concerto.
Rachel Shapiro
Violist Rachel Shapiro is an accomplished chamber musician and experienced Teaching Artist. Her latest project is as co-founder of MishMash Music Company, a new kind of chamber music series that seeks to reinvigorate the concert going experience by way of non-traditional, audience interactive programs. As a chamber musician, she has appeared with The Daedalus Quartet, The Avalon Quartet and The Jerusalem Trio, with whom she has appeared over the past few years as a piano quartet, both in the United States and in Israel. For the past five years, she has been a regular performer at The Next Generation Festival. Other festival appearances include The K'far Blum Chamber Music Festival, The Ravinia Institute for Young Artists, Aspen, Mozarteum Summer Academy, and IMS Prussia Cove. In addition to her performing, for over ten years Ms. Shapiro has been devoted to teaching classical music in a variety of educational situations. She is currently a senior Teaching Artist for the New York Philharmonic School Partnership Program, and also works as an educational consultant for Helen Armstrong Chamber Concerts. Ms. Shapiro received both her Bachelor and Masters degrees from The Juilliard School. Post-graduation, she continued her studies with Tabea Zimmermann in Berlin, Germany with the support of a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant. Please check out www.rsviola.com for more information.
Xiao-Dong Wang
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. 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.
Biographical information supplied by artist's management.
