The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle at Bard College Presents Dup Parnas Performing "The Red Priest of Venice: Vivaldi"

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle presents “The Red Priest of Venice: Vivaldi” on Sunday, November 15, at 2:00 p.m. in Bard Hall on the Bard College campus. The family concert features Madalyn Parnas, violin; Cicely Parnas, cello; and Yaron Kohlberg, piano. No reservations are necessary; seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The educational program presents the story of the famous Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi, who spent much of his life composing and teaching in Venice at the Ospedale della Pieta, where abandoned babies were sheltered and educated. The story is told by two “orphan musicians,” a violinist and cellist, who live at the Oespedale and play in Vivaldi’s amazing orchestra. Excerpts from Vivaldi’s famous Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, the Four Seasons, and sonatas will be performed.

About the Performers:

Duo parnas is well-known both as an extraordinary chamber duo and as two of the top young individual artists and virtuosos of their generation. Sisters Madalyn Parnas, violinist, and Cicely Parnas, cellist, have been featured in numerous national radio programs and magazines; released two highly acclaimed CDs; taken first prize in an international chamber music competition, performing in Carnegie Hall; and have each won top prizes in national soloist competitions. They often perform double concerti, and have collaborated with conductor Jaime Laredo and the New York String Orchestra and David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony. As members of the Parnas/Serkin Trio, Madalyn and Cicely have performed regularly with the incomparable pianist Peter Serkin at such venues as the New School, Music Mountain Festival, Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, and the Brattleboro Chamber Music Series. Madalyn, 18, revealed a robust musical personality at an early age, earning top prizes in violin, piano, and voice by age 10. Carrying a 4.0 GPA, Madalyn is now a senior in college, majoring in music industry and French. A violin student of James Buswell, Madalyn performs on a 1687 Gioffredo Cappa violin. Sixteen-year-old Cicely, soloing with orchestra at age nine, has now performed dozens of concerti. She is compared to her grandfather, the great cellist Leslie Parnas, for her exquisite tone, intuitive musicality, and absolute fearlessness in performance. Studying with renowned cellist Peter Wiley, she is a college sophomore concentrating in music and German. She plays a 1790 William Forster cello.

Yaron Kohlberg, born in Jerusalem in 1983, is one of Israel’s leading young pianists. He is the winner of prestigious international prizes and performs regularly in Israel and abroad to critical acclaim. Kohlberg is winner of the second prize in the 2007 Cleveland International Piano Competition, where he performed in the final round with the Cleveland Orchestra. He has also won first prizes in the Parnassos International Competition in Monterrey (Mexico) and the Shostakovich International Competition in Hanover, and was a top prizewinner in other international competitions, such as Andorra, Tivoli (Copenhagen), and Grieg (Oslo). In Israel he won first prize in the Clairmont competition, the Young Artist Competition, and the piano competition of the Jerusalem Music Academy. He has received many additional awards, including Tel Aviv University’s Colton Scholarship and a citation as the outstanding participant at the Tel-Hai Masterclasses.

The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle, an association of chamber music lovers that is celebrating its 59th season, was founded by Helen Huntington Hull and two friends from Staatsburg, New York. They enlisted the help of violinist Emil Hauser, then a member of the Bard College faculty and original first violinist of the Budapest Quartet, to invite the best musicians of the time to perform at the Mills and Vanderbilt Mansions. In 1979, the concert series became a program of The Bard Center. The HVCMC continues to attract many of the world’s preeminent chamber music artists. In 2000, Sharon Robinson and Jaime Laredo assumed artistic directorship of the chamber music series.

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October 20, 2009

This event was last updated on 10-27-2009

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