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If you have speakers on your computer, you can hear online samples of their performances here and here.
Concertante has acquired a sheen, warmth, and polish that are the hallmark of superb chamber music groups. 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. 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.
American pianist Adam Neiman, appearing with Concertante in this performance, is hailed as one of the premiere pianists of his generation, praised for possessing a truly rare blend of power, bravura, imagination, sensitivity, and technical precision. With a burgeoning international career and an encyclopedic repertoire that spans over fifty concertos, Neiman has performed as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Belgrade, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Umbria, and Utah, as well as with the New York Chamber Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C. He has collaborated with such conductors as Jiri Belohlavek, Giancarlo Guerrero, Carlos Kalmer, Uros Lajovic, Yoel Levi, Andrew Litton, Peter Oundjian, Leonard Slatkin, and Emmanuel Villaume.
An acclaimed recitalist, Neiman has toured throughout North America, playing in the major halls of La Jolla, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Seattle, Vancouver, Washington D.C., and at Caramoor and Ravinia. His European recital tours have brought him throughout Italy, France, Germany, and Japan, where he made an eight-city tour culminating in his debut at Tokyo's Suntory Hall.
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 is also a member of Trio Solisti, and was seen here in Los Alamos last season with them, as well as on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center, the Washington Performing Arts Society at The Kennedy Center and at Weill Hall.
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.
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.
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, Lucerne Symphonyand 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 and Avner Dorman. 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. A dedicate of over 15 concertos, Special premieres include a concerto for violin, narrator and orchestra by Glen Roven with Brooke Shields (released by Sony/BMG and performed at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony and Glenn Close), and RAGTIMES for violin and orchestra by John Novacek.
Violist Rachel Shapiro is an accomplished chamber musician and experienced Teaching Artist. Ms. Shapiro is currently in her tenth year as a senior teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic School Partnership Program. In 2007, she was the recipient of the The Halee and David Baldwin Teaching Artist Chair, awarded to one senior teaching artist each year to further their artistic development. She is also a Concert Mentor for The Academy, a Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute. Most recently her work as a teaching artist brought her to Israel, leading a seminar on interactive concerts at the International String Seminar at Mizra. Shapiro is a co-founder of MishMash Music Company LLC, which presents non-traditional, audience interactive concerts for adult audiences. Ms. Shapiro's chamber music performances include appearances with The Daedalus Quartet, The Avalon Quartet and The Jerusalem Trio. She has been a regular performer at The Next Generation Festival, and 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. Ms. Shapiro received her Bachelors of Music degree from The Juilliard School in 1999, and her Masters of Music in 2000. Ms. Shapiro continued her post-graduate work in 2002 in Berlin, Germany with the support of a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant.
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.