HUDSON VALLEY CHAMBER MUSIC CIRCLE CONCERT ON JUNE 9 FEATURES JAIME LAREDO, SHARON ROBINSON, LEON FLEISHER, AND MICHAEL TREE
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-The first of three Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle (HVCMC) concerts at Bard College will be held on Saturday, June 9. The program, presented by The Bard Center, begins at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall.
Violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson, artistic directors of the HVCMC, will be joined by pianist Leon Fleisher and violist Michael Tree for the program, which includes Brahms's Piano Quartet in A Major, a Schubert sonatina, and Dohnányi's Serenade for String Trio.
Laredo and Robinson are members of the acclaimed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Laredo tours regularly as a soloist and conductor and has won the admiration and respect of audiences, critics and fellow musicians the world over. He is artistic director of New York's renowned Chamber Music at the 92nd Street Y series. His wife, Sharon Robinson, is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Recital Award, the Piatigorsky Memorial Award, and a Grammy nomination. She is recognized worldwide as a dynamic artist and one of the outstanding cellists of our time.
Violist Michael Tree, a founding member of the Guarneri String Quartet, plays with the quartet and in solo performances in major cities around the world. Leon Fleisher is considered one of the great pianists of our century. He was the first American to win the Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition in Belgium. In the mid 1960s his career was interrupted by a debilitating ailment affecting his right hand. He went on to devote his musical talents to teaching and conducting, and eventually began playing left-hand piano literature to great acclaim. He has held the Andrew W. Mellon Chair at the Peabody Conservatory of Music since 1959 and serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Royal Conservatory of Music.
The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle, which celebrated its 50th season last year, was founded by Helen Huntington Hull and two friends from Staatsburg, New York. They enlisted the help of violinist Emil Hauser, a member of the Bard College faculty and original first violinist of the Budapest Quartet, to invite performing artists for concerts at the Mills and Vanderbilt Mansions. In 1979, the concert series began its association with Bard College. The HVCMC remains an association of chamber music lovers and a venue that attracts many of the world's preeminent chamber music artists.
These performances are made possible, in part, through the generosity of the Homeland Foundation and The Leon Levy Foundation at Bard College. A subscription to the three-concert series is $60; individual tickets are $25; for senior citizens $15; and for students $5. For further information, call 845-340-0044.
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(5.22.01)
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