Beloved Piano Quartets
For more than four decades of stellar success around the globe — including many award-winning recordings and newly commissioned
works — violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson have dazzled audiences and critics alike. In this rare evening of musical mastery, they will pair with award-winning pianist Anna Polonsky and acclaimed composer/violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, for quartet masterpieces by Mozart and Dvořák. This stirring concert will also be the West Coast premiere of Ngwenyama’s moving Elegy, a reflection and response to systemic racism across centuries to this moment in 2022, through a lens of collective societal struggle — co-commissioned by CMNW.
This special concert is dedicated to the memory of pianist Joseph Kalichstein, founding member of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.
“It’s a rare luxury to hear music-making of such integrity and joy, and an equally rare privilege to be party to such an intimate musical conversation.”
— American Record Guide, of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
WEARING MASKS + UP-TO-DATE VACCINATION STATUS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED at this time for attending CMNW concerts.
The Old Church
Thursday, 11/10 • 7:30 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- MOZART Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478Before Beethoven normalized the image of the solitary “artist-genius,” composers were often seen as public servants, fully expected to meet the vested interests of patrons, publishers, musicians, and audiences. For instance, when Franz Anton Hoffmeister commissioned three piano quartets from Mozart in 1785, the Austrian publisher hoped that Mozart would create a trio of works that were pleasing to the ear and accessible for the burgeoning amateur market (not to mention profitable). The first submission — a quartet in G Minor for violin, viola, cello, and piano — was neither. The Weimar-based Journal des Luxus und der Moden later reported that the piece “requires the utmost precision in all four parts, but, even when it is well played, it seems that only connoisseurs of music are able and intended to enjoy it…” Displeased with how poorly the work was selling, Hoffmeister ultimately canceled the order and paid Mozart an advance for the remaining two unwritten piano quartets. (Mozart only completed and published one other, K. 493 in E-flat Major.)
Opening with a forceful call-and-response between the strings and piano, the dramatic first movement of the K. 478 Piano Quartet immediately conjures associations of Mozart’s two stormiest symphonies (Nos. 25 and 40), both also set in the key of G Minor. It is not difficult to hear why the Quartet might have been unapproachable for the amateurs of Mozart’s day, as exposed solo moments and tricky flurries of notes are common to each part. The second movement offers an island of calm after the preceding tempest; the piano introduces a flowing song before gracefully handing it over to the strings. This eventually leads to a cheery third movement, a Rondo set in the relative key of G Major. The opening earworm-of-a-tune only appears three times in full—perhaps a Mozartian joke—but the movement is still ripe with melodies and detours that surprise and delight.
— © Dr. Kevin McBrien
- NOKUTHULA NGWENYAMA “Elegy” (2022)
Nokuthula Ngwenyama Elegy for Piano Quartet (2022)
(b.1976)To remember,
to let go.
To be haunted
then free.Honoring our ancestors
and the sacrifices
leading to this moment,
We commemorate a
will to thrive over centuries
And give respect to
the struggle
which proudly belongs to us all.Elegy is a 12-minute work mourning the souls lost to systemic racism. Rather than suffering in unsatisfying despair, it aims to honor human triumph through recognition of our painful history while commemorating how far we have come in this collective societal struggle.
A questioning melody slowly unfolds by the violin in the 5/4 adagio. The strings build to wailing before being sent on the Middle Passage. The ship rises and falls with flowing eighth notes in the piano, while the sound of rubbing ropes is played on the back of the viola by rolling the stick over loosened bow hair. A sailor whistles while the cello mourns being caught in an inescapable fate. Patterns symbolizing heroes and martyrs are introduced in the piano through call and response and developed in flowing tribute by the ensemble. The cello then states important dates, starting with 1863 in G minor (G G E-flat B-flat) gliding forward through time. A chorus of strings responds in lightness, progress and innovation while the bass line falls and stalls via tremolo on a low D-flat. Clavé rhythms permeate the texture with taps of the string trio in drum-circle fashion, honoring and calling to our ancestors. The large 5/4 section ends with two abrupt pizzicati slaps symbolizing the year 2020 (D-flat rest D-flat rest).
The heart of the piece follows with the intervals of 1619 (G E-flat G A-flat) in G minor ensemble unison, while the piece is in C minor: “good trouble.” Development of 1619 suddenly stills in reference to Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata, which I heard as Russian tanks and artillery lined up along the Ukrainian border. The piano gets the last emotional word through an epilogue, building with hope toward a painful ending dependent upon and framed by time. The last four notes in the piano are based on the current year in G minor. So, the 2022 premiere sounds like A-flat rest A-flat A-flat. 2032 would be A-flat rest B-flat A-flat with flats at the discretion of the player, and 3022 would be B-flat rest A-flat A-flat.
I am deeply honored that the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio asked me to write Elegy. Heartfelt thanks to them, the Linton Chamber Series and supporting commissioners Arizona Friends of Music, Brattleboro Music Center, Chamber Music Monterrey Bay, Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Tulsa, Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle, Kennedy Center, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Phoenix Chamber Music Society, with whom I am composer-in-residence. It is with friendship, admiration, gratitude, pride and humility that I join the group and respond to the call of the largest political movement in U.S. history following the summer of 2020’s reckoning. Sources of inspiration include a prior visit to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture with Fleur Paysour, and The 1619 Project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times, including articles by Ms. Hannah-Jones, Jamelle Bouie, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Kendrick Johnson and Linda Villarosa. John Lewis’ encouraging Carry On gave strength to write into the next phrase, as did the unedited and undelivered version of his speech “We Must Free Ourselves,” included in the treasure-trove Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches, edited by Josh Gottheimer. The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman kept hope alive while reading “Retracing a Slave Route in Ghana, 400 Years On,” by Reuters writers Siphiwe Sibeko and Francis Korokoro and studying Slate magazine’s interactive animated map, “The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes,” compiled and written by Andrew Kahn and, again, Jamelle Bouie.
There is no where on earth
Where there is no pain.
Let that unite us
With love and compassion
So we may mourn together,
And improve our ways.© Nokuthula Ngwenyama (2022)
All rights reserved
www.thulamusic.comThe creation of Elegy, written for The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, was made possible with the support of the Linton Chamber Music (Commissioned in Memory of Carol and Harry Hoffheimer) [world premiere]; Brattleboro Music Center; Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle; Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival; Chamber Music Tulsa; The Abe Fortas Memorial Fund of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the late Carolyn E. Agger, the widow of Abe Fortas; Chamber Music Northwest; Chamber Music Monterey Bay; Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, sponsored in memory of Isidore and Goldie Shapiro by their grandchildren, Ben, Miriam, Rachel, and Ruthie; Phoenix Chamber Music Society; Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; and Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, through the International Arts Foundation, Inc.
- ANTONIN DVOŘÁK Piano Quartet No.2 in E-flat, Op. 87
DVOŘÁK Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87
Only 11 years separate Dvořák’s early works from his Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87; in that time Dvořák morphed from a relatively unknown Bohemian violist living in the backwaters of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to an internationally renowned composer and a champion of Czech culture. At age 48, Dvořák’s compositional self-confidence was at its height. Opus 87 is music written by a man who knew what he wanted to say and had mastered his craft.
The Allegro con fuoco begins with the strings’ emphatic statement in E-flat major, but the piano’s entrance immediately confounds our ears with its unexpected response in B-flat minor. In just a few bars, Dvořák signals the harmonic inventiveness, musical complexity, and shifting moods of the whole movement. The simplicity of the cello solo in the Lento provides the perfect contrast to the Allegro’s intricacy. With minimal accompaniment, the cello’s five linked melodies exude serenity, briefly broken by a turbulent interlude in a contrasting key. In the third movement, Dvořák hints at Middle Eastern sonorities with a melody based on an augmented minor scale. The grace and elegance of the waltz-like theme is juxtaposed with a highly rhythmic section that races through tonalities with the ease of a horse galloping over a meadow. Like the opening movement, the Finale is designed to bewilder, with its opening E-flat minor (rather than E-flat major) theme. Dvořák, like Brahms, never seems at a loss for melodic ideas, and he demonstrates this flair with a series of buoyant, well-crafted tunes, several of which are first introduced by his favorite instrument, the viola.
On August 10, 1889, Dvořák wrote to a friend, “I have already three movements of a new quartet with piano completely ready and the finale will be finished in several days. It’s going unexpectedly easily and melodies are coming to me in droves.”
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
Artists
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Jaime Laredo
Violin
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Performing for over six decades before audiences across the globe, Jaime Laredo has excelled in the multiple roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist, pedagogue, and chamber musician. Since his stunning orchestral debut at the age of eleven with the San Francisco Symphony, he has won the admiration and respect of audiences, critics and fellow musicians with his passionate and polished performances. That debut inspired one critic to write: ‘In the 1920’s it was Yehudi Menuhin; in the 1930’s it was Isaac Stern; and last night it was Jaime Laredo.’ His education and development were greatly influenced by his teachers Josef Gingold and Ivan Galamian, as well as by private coaching with eminent masters Pablo Casals and George Szell. At the age of seventeen, Jaime Laredo won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, launching his rise to international prominence. With 2009 marking the 50th anniversary of his prize, he was honored to sit on the Jury for the final round of the Competition.
In the 2018-19 Season, Mr. Laredo tours the United States as conductor, soloist and as a member of the award-winning Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, which recently celebrated its 40th Anniversary. This season on violin, he premieres Pas de Deux. Chris Brubeck’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson at the Classical Tahoe Festival in Nevada with music director Joel Revzen. Later this season, the work, commissioned specifically for the duo, will be heard with the Greensboro Symphony and Dmitri Sitkovetsky. Performances for the remaining co-commissioners, which include the Pacific and Vermont symphonies as well as the University of North Carolina School of the Arts will take place throughout the 2019-2020 season. Laredo and Robinson have greatly added to the double concerto canon with works written specifically for them by Richard Danielpour, David Ludwig, André Previn, Ned Rorem and Ellen Zwilich, among others. As conductor, Laredo leads the New York String Orchestra in its 50th Anniversary for two performances at Carnegie Hall. Additional conducting engagements take him to the Portland (ME) Symphony Orchestra, The Vermont Symphony and Westchester Philharmionc. Recording releases planned for this season include The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio’s premiere recording of Stanley Silverman’s Trio No. 2 “Reveille” which features a vocal movement performed with Sting, and a duo recording of Violin and Cello, highlighting the rare gem of the Schulhoff Duo for Violin and Cello that Laredo and Robinson have championed in recent seasons.
Last season, in addition to reprising André Previn’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, which was commissioned specifically for the duo by the Cincinnati, Kansas City, Austin, Detroit, Pacific and Toronto symphony orchestras, as well as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson, Laredo’s remarkable sound was heard on viola in Mozart Sinfonia Concertante on tour throughout Vermont and at Carnegie Hall with Pamela Frank, his friend and onetime student.
Mr. Laredo continues to tour and record as a member of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Founded by Mr. Laredo, Sharon Robinson, and pianist Joseph Kalichstein in 1976, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio celebrated their 40th Anniversary with Beethoven Cycles across the United States and in Seoul and with a specially commissioned work entitled, “Pas de Trois” written for them by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich; The Trio performs regularly at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Town Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center where they are the ensemble in residence. They have toured internationally to cities that include Lisbon, Hamburg, Copenhagen, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Helsinki, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Melbourne. Among, its numerous awards, the Trio was named Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year in 2002. In addition to his performing work, Mr. Laredo’s season includes conducting engagements with the Vermont Symphony, the Westchester Philharmonic, and at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra. 2018 also marks the seventh year of Laredo’s tenure as a member of the violin faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
In past seasons, Mr. Laredo and Ms. Robinson performed in recital in the US, Canada and on tour in Bolivia, including performances of Richard Danielpour’s “Inventions on a Marriage.” The 2011 work was commissioned specifically for the duo and was dedicated to and inspired by their marriage, and explores in “musical snapshots” the bond of long-term relationships.
Recent conducting and solo engagements have taken Laredo to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the New World Symphony and Scottish Chamber Orchestra in addition to the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Vermont Symphony and Westchester Philharmonic. Festival engagements have taken him across the globe from the Chautauqua Music Festival in New York to Seoul Spring Festival in Korea.
A recent project titled ‘Two x Four’ celebrated the relationship between teacher and student through music. With his colleague and former student Jennifer Koh, Mr. Laredo and Ms. Koh performed the Double Concerti for Two Violins by J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, and two newly commissioned concerti by composers Anna Clyne and David Ludwig with the Delaware Symphony, the IRIS orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and with the Curtis Orchestra on tour at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Kennedy Center and the Miller Theater of Columbia University. The recording of this acclaimed project was released by Cedille Records in 2014.
Other conducting and performing highlights include the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. Abroad, he has performed with the London Symphony, the BBC Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Royal Philharmonic and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which he led on two American tours and in their Hong Kong Festival debut. His numerous recordings with the SCO include Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” (which stayed on the British best-seller charts for over a year), Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Italian” and “Scottish” Symphonies, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and recordings of Rossini overtures and Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll.”
For fifteen years, Mr. Laredo was violist of the piano quartet consisting of renowned pianist Emanuel Ax, celebrated violinist Isaac Stern, and distinguished cellist Yo-Yo Ma, his close colleagues and chamber music collaborators. Together, the quartet recorded nearly the entire piano quartet repertoire on the SONY Classical label, including the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Fauré, and Brahms, for which they won a Grammy Award.
Mr. Laredo has recorded close to one hundred discs, received the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize, and has been awarded seven Grammy nominations. Mr. Laredo’s discs on CBS and RCA have included the complete Bach Sonatas with the late Glenn Gould and a KOCH International Classics album of duos with Ms. Robinson featuring works by Handel, Kodaly, Mozart and Ravel. His releases on the Dorian label include Schubert’s complete works for violin and piano with Stephanie Brown, and “Virtuoso!”, a collection of favorite violin encores with pianist Margo Garrett. Other releases include Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and Concertone with Cho-Liang Lin for Sony. Acclaimed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio releases include complete complete trios and sonatas of Shostakovich, complete chamber works of Maurice Ravel a four-disc set of the complete Brahms Piano Trios, a set of complete Beethoven Piano Trios and complete Schubert Piano Trios. The Trio’s most recent release on Azica, “Passionate Diversions,” includes the Piano Trio, Septet and Quintet written for them by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Mr. Laredo has also released an album with Sharon Robinson and the Vermont Symphony entitled “Triple Doubles,” which includes three double concertos dedicated to the Duo: Daron Hagen’s Masquerade; a new, fully-orchestrated version of Richard Danielpour’s A Child’s Reliquary (originally written as a piano trio for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio); and David Ludwig’s Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra. Both albums were released by BRIDGE in November, 2011.
Recognized internationally as a sought after violin teacher, Mr. Laredo has fostered the education of violinists that include Leila Josefowitz, Hillary Hahn, Jennifer Koh, Ivan Chan, Soovin Kim, Pamela Frank and Bella Hristova. After 35 years of teaching at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, seven years at Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music, Mr. Laredo began teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2012, where his wife cellist Sharon Robinson also holds a teaching position. Additionally, Mr. Laredo is the conductor of the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, which brings young musicians from around the world to the stage every December.
In demand worldwide as a conductor and a soloist, Mr. Laredo has held the position of Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra since 1999 and serves as Principal Conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2009, Mr. Laredo and his wife were named the Artistic Directors of the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, OH.
During his 39 years as Artistic Director for New York’s renowned Chamber Music at the Y series, Mr. Laredo created an important forum for chamber music performances, and developed a devoted following. Further, his stewardships of the annual New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis have become beloved educational pillars of the string community. A principal figure at the Marlboro Music Festival in years past, he has also been involved at Tanglewood, Aspen, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, and the Hollywood Bowl, as well as festivals in Italy, Spain, Finland, Greece, Israel, Austria, Switzerland and England.
Born in Bolivia, Jaime Laredo resides in Guilford, VT and Cleveland, OH, with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson.
Jaime Laredo’s recordings can be found on the CBS, RCA, KOCH International, Dorian, SONY, Azica, and Bridge labels. Please visit his Facebook page (@jaimelaredoofficial) for additional information about touring, recordings, and special projects. -
Sharon Robinson
Cello
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Winner of the Avery Fisher Recital Award, the Piatigorsky Memorial Award, the Pro Musicis Award, and a Grammy Nominee, cellist Sharon Robinson is recognized worldwide as a consummate artist and one of the most outstanding musicians of our time. Whether as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, or member of the world-famous Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, critics, audiences and fellow musicians respond to what the Indianapolis Star has called “A cellist who has simply been given the soul of Caruso.” Her guest appearances with orchestras include the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, National, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and San Francisco symphonies, and in Europe, the London Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Zürich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, and the English, Scottish, and Franz Lizst chamber orchestras.
Revered for her chamber music performances, Ms. Robinson co-founded the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio forty years ago. She collaborated with Rudolf Serkin and Alexander Schneider at the Malboro Music Festival and has appeared with some of the musical giants of our time, including Isaac Stern, Leon Fleisher, Rudolf Firkušný, Yo-Yo Ma, Engene Istomin, Itzhak Perlman, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, André Watts, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, and the Emerson, Guarneri, Miami, Juilliard, Cavani, Orion, and Tokyo Quartets.
Committed to the music of our time, Sharon Robinson works closely with many of today’s leading composers, including Richard Danielpour, Katherine Hoover, Leon Kirchner, David Ludwig, Arvo Pärt, André Previn, Ned Rorem, Stanley Silverman, Andy Stein, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and Joan Tower. She is admired for consortium building, putting together multiple presenters as co-comissioners of both chamber music works and concertos with orchestra. For the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio’s 35th anniversary, she gathered twelve presenters to commission Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Quintet, and for the 35th anniversary of her marriage to Jaime Laredo, she compiled eight co-commissioners for Richard Danielpour’s Inventions on a Marriage.
Ms. Robinson and Jaime Laredo recently premiered André Previn’s Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, performing with the Orchestras of Cincinnati, Toronto, Detroit, Kansas City, Austin, and the Pacific Symphony in Orange County, California. In Europe, they premiered the Previn with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. Currently, the pair are celebrating their 40 years of marriage by assembling a coalition of orchestras to co-commission a new Double Concerto for them by Chris Brubeck.
Sharon Robinson divides her time among solo engagements, teaching, performing with her husband, violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo, and touring with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. As of the Fall of 2012, she joined the renowned instrumental and chamber music faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. She previously taught at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Highly sought after for her dynamic master classes, she brings insight to her teaching from the rare combination of her lifetime experiences as member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Ciompi String Quartet of Duke University, plus countless solo recitals and concerto performances.
In 2009, Ms. Robinson, along with Mr. Laredo, became co-Artistic Director of the famed Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, Ohio. This important forum gathers musicians from around the globe in combination with soloists and members of the stellar Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to explore beloved and innovative chamber works. The couple are also co-artistic directors of the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle at Bard College, and Artistic Advisors for the Brattleboro Music Center in Vermont.
Sharon Robinson’s television appearances have included The Tonight Show, the Today Show, the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, a profile on CBS Sunday Morning, plus guest staring with Garrison Keillor on the Prairie Home Companion on NPR. Equally impressive are her festival engagements, which include Spoleto, Mostly Mozart, Seoul Spring Festival, Aspen, Marlboro, London’s South Bank, Madeira, Granada, Edinburgh, and Prague’s Autumn Festival where she performed the Dvorák Cello Concerto at the famous Dvorák Hall.
Ms. Robinson’s CDs include the Vivaldi Cello Sonatas on Vox and a Grenadilla disc of solo cello works by Debussy, Fauré, and Rorem. The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio has recorded chamber works of Ravel; Legacies, a disc of commissioned works; and a two-CD set of the complete piano trios and sonatas by Shostakovich for KOCH International Classics. The Trio has also recorded the complete piano trios of Brahms and Mendelssohn for Vox as well as the Beethoven Triple Concerto for Chandos. Additionally, KOCH released Conversations, a Laredo/Robinson CD featuring duos by Handel, Gliere, Kodály, and a work composed for them by David Ott. Ms. Robinson received a Grammy nomination for the Two Brahms Sextets CD with Isaac Stern, Cho-Liang Lin, Jaime Laredo, Michael Tree, and Yo-Yo Ma. To celebrate Schubert’s anniversary, that same ensemble (sans Michael Tree) recorded Schubert’s great Cello Quintet for Sony, as well. In August 2002 KOCH released an all-Zwilich Concerto CD (including a double concerto written for Robinson and Laredo, and a triple concerto written for the Trio). Other releases included the Trio’s 4-CD all-Beethoven project, and Danielpour’s In the Arms of the Beloved. In 2006, Naxos released the Double Concerto by Ned Rorem, performed by Ms. Robinson and Mr. Laredo. Recently, BRIDGE Records released Triple Doubles, an album of three new Double Concertos written for the Duo by Daron Hagen, Richard Danielpour, and David Ludwig, plus the complete Schubert Trios with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.
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Anna Polonsky
Piano
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Anna Polonsky is widely in demand as a soloist and chamber musician. She has appeared with the Moscow Virtuosi, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and many others. Ms. Polonsky has collaborated with the Guarneri, Shanghai, and Juilliard Quartets, and with such musicians as Mitsuko Uchida, Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Goode, Emanuel Ax, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Jaime Laredo. She has performed chamber music at festivals such as Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Seattle, Music@Menlo, Cartagena, Bard, and Caramoor. Ms. Polonsky has given concerts in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall’s Stern, Weill, and Zankel Halls, and has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. A frequent guest at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, she was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two during 2002-2004. She is a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award.
Anna Polonsky made her solo piano debut at the age of seven at the Special Central Music School in Moscow, Russia. She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She received her Bachelor of Music diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of the renowned pianist Peter Serkin, and continued her studies with Jerome Lowenthal, earning her Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School. In addition to performing, she serves on the piano faculty of Vassar College, and in the summer at the Marlboro and Kneisel Hall chamber music festivals.
Together with violinist Jaime Laredo, violist Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Sharon Robinson, Polonsky is a member of the Espressivo! Piano Quartet. With the clarinetist David Shifrin and cellist Peter Wiley, she performs with the Polonsky-Shifrin-Wiley Trio.
Ms. Polonsky is a Steinway Artist.