New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) - Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing distinguish him as one of this generation's quintessential artists. Balancing a solo career with performances as an artist member of The Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, Neubauer at age 21 was the youngest principal string player in the New York Philharmonic's history. He is the Orchestra and Chamber
Music Director of the OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
In 2005, he premiered Joan Tower's Purple Rhapsody, a viola concerto commissioned for him by seven orchestras and the Koussevitsky Foundation. Mr. Neubauer has recently released an all Schumann recital album with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott for Image Recordings and recorded works that were written for him: Wild Purple for solo viola by Joan Tower for Naxos; Viola Rhapsody a concerto by Henri Lazarof on Centaur Records; and Soul Garden for viola and chamber ensemble by Derek Bermel on CRI. His recording of the Walton Viola Concerto was recently re-released on Decca.
He has appeared with over 100 orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia including the New York, Los Angeles, Helsinki and Royal Liverpool Philharmonics, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco and Bournemouth Symphonies, Santa Cecilia and English Chamber and Beethovenhalle Orchestras. He gave the world premiere of the revised Barto'k Viola Concerto as well as Concertos by Penderecki, Picker, Jacob, Lazarof, Suter, Mu"ller-Siemens, Ott and Friedman.
He has performed at the festivals of Verbier, Ravinia, Stavanger, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart, and Marlboro. Mr. Neubauer was an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the first prizewinner of the Whitaker, D'Angelo and Lionel Tertis International Competitions. He has been heard on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor and has been featured in Strad, Strings and People magazine. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College.
Ida Kavafian - Viola
Violinist/Violist Ida Kavafian enjoys an international reputation as one of the most active and versatile musicians performing today. Artist-Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and former Violinist of the renowned Beaux Arts Trio, some of her many activities presently include performing as a soloist, in recital, with her sister Ani, as guest violist with ensembles such as the Guarneri, Orion and American String Quartets, as Artistic Director of the highly successful festival, Music from Angel Fire in NM, and as a faculty member at The Curtis Institute and Bard College. With a repertoire as diverse as her career, she has premiered many new works including concerti by Toru Takemitsu and Michael Daugherty, has toured and recorded with jazz greats Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis as well as Fiddler/Composer Mark O'Connor, and has had a solo feature on CBS Sunday Morning.
Co-founder of the innovative group TASHI more than thirty years ago, Ms. Kavafian more recently co-founded a piano quartet called OPUS ONE. Born in Istanbul, Turkey of Armenian parentage, she is a graduate of the Juilliard School where she was a student of Oscar Shumsky and was presented in her debut by Young Concert Artists with pianist Peter Serkin. Her violin is a JB Guadagnini and her viola was made by Peter and Wendela Moes in 1988. Residing in Connecticut and Philadelphia with her husband, violist Steven Tenenbom, Ms. Kavafian has found great success in another field, the breeding, training and showing of prize-winning Hungarian Vizsla dogs. The Tenenboms are the proud owners of the Number One Vizsla All Systems in the US for the year 2003 and the National Champion of 2007.
Fred Sherry - Cello
A pioneer and a visionary in the music world, cellist Fred Sherry has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time through his close association with such composers as Babbitt, Berio, Carter, Davidovsky, Foss, Knussen, Lieberson, Mackey, Takemitsu, Wuorinen and Zorn. Mario Davidovsky, Steven Mackey, Somei Satoh and Charles Wuorinen have written concertos for Mr. Sherry; he gave the European premiere of the Elliott Carter cello concerto, which is dedicated to Fred Sherry, with Oliver Knussen and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the 2002 Aldeburgh Festival and their subsequent recording was released on the Bridge label.
He has been a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Berio's Juilliard Ensemble, the Galimir String Quartet and a close collaborator with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. Mr. Sherry was a founding member of Speculum Musicae and Tashi. His work with Tashi includes a number of premieres and performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony and L'Orchestra de la Suisse Romande.
Sherry has been an active performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since the 1970's, an Artist Member since 1984 and was the Artistic Director from 1988 to 1992. He has been a guest at festivals including the Aldeburgh Festival, Casals Festival, Tanglewood, Spoleto, Scotia Festival of Music, Toru Takemitsu's Music Today, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart and the Mostly Mozart Festival. He is a member of the cello faculty of the Juilliard School, the Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.
Sherry created the series 'Bach Cantata Sundays' at St. Ann's Church and conceived and directed the acclaimed 'Arnold Schoenberg: Conservative Radical' series at Merkin Concert Hall. He was the creator and director of 'A Great Day in New York,' the groundbreaking festival featuring 52 living composers presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall.
In the vast scope of his recording career, Fred Sherry has been a soloist and 'sideman' on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings on RCA, Columbia, Vanguard, CRI, Albany, Bridge, ECM, New World, Arabesque, Delos, Vox, Koch Naxos and Tzadik. Mr. Sherry's longstanding collaboration with Robert Craft has produced recordings of the Schoenberg Cello Concerto and String Quartet Concerto and other major works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Webern.
Fred Sherry's 60th birthday (in 2008) was recognized with celebration concerts at the Guggenheim Museum and Miller Theater at Columbia University.
Matt Haimotvitz - Cello
Renowned as a musical pioneer, cellist Matt Haimovitz has inspired classical music lovers and countless new listeners by bringing his artistry to concert halls and clubs, outdoor festivals and intimate coffee houses, any place where passionate music can be heard. Through his visionary approach - bringing a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, championing new music and initiating groundbreaking collaborations, innovative recording projects for Oxingale Records, a tireless touring schedule as well as mentoring an award-winning studio of young cellists at McGill University's Schulich School of Music in Montreal - Haimovitz is re-defining what it means to be an artist for the 21st century.
Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. At 17 he made his first recording with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for Deutsche Grammophon. Haimovitz has since gone on to perform on the world's most esteemed stages, with such orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic with Levine, the New York Philharmonic with Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Kent Nagano. Haimovitz made his Carnegie Hall debut when he substituted for his teacher, the legendary Leonard Rose, in Schubert's String Quintet in C, alongside Isaac Stern, Shlomo Mintz, Pinchas Zukerman and Mstislav Rostropovich.
The solo cello recital is a Haimovitz trademark, both inside and outside the concert hall. In 2000, he made waves with his Bach 'Listening-Room' Tour, for which, to great acclaim, Haimovitz took Bach's beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and into clubs across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Haimovitz's 50-state Anthem tour in 2003 celebrated living American composers, and featured his own arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's 'Star-Spangled Banner.' He was the first classical artist to play at New York's infamous CBGB club, in a performance filmed by ABC News for 'Nightline UpClose.'
Haimovitz's recording career encompasses more than 20 years of award-winning work on Deutche Grammophon and his own Oxingale Records, the trailblazing independent label he founded with composer/producer Luna Pearl Woolf. Among other awards and acclaim, two recent Oxingale albums have been nominated for Juno Awards: After Reading Shakespeare and Mozart the Mason.
Matt Haimovitz's 2009/10 season features Figment, a new album and listening room tour of (mostly) solo cello music, exploring the musical riches and diversity of his two home countries, the US and Canada, and AKOKA, a live recording reframing Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time with works by klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer and hip-hop artist Socalled. Both albums will be released by Oxingale Records in fall '09. A live recording of Schumann's Cello Concerto with Gregory Nowak and the Orchestre de Bretagne is scheduled for release in spring 2010 as is a recording of Ligeti's Cello Concerto with Denys Bouliane and the Contemporary Music Ensemble of McGill University. Ongoing collaborations include a series of concerto commissions with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, string quartets with Mark O'Connor, Ida Kavafian, and Paul Neubauer, and chamber music with Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Michael Tree, as well as McGill colleagues violinist Jonathan Crow and violist Douglas McNabney.
In 2006, Haimovitz received the Concert Music Award from ASCAP for his advocacy of living composers and pioneering spirit, and in 2004, the American Music Center awarded Haimovitz the Trailblazer Award, for his far-reaching contributions to American music. Born in Israel, Haimovitz has also been honored with the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1986), the Grand Prix du Disque (1991), the Diapason d'Or (1991) and he is the first cellist ever to receive the prestigious Premio Internazionale 'Accademia Musicale Chigiana' (1999). Haimovitz studied at the Collegiate School in New York and at the Juilliard School, in the final class of Leonard Rose, after which he continued his cello studies with Ronald Leonard and Yo-Yo Ma. In 1996, he received a B.A. magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University. Matt Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller.
Tim Cobb - Double Bass
Outside of his duties as principal bass of the Met Orchestra, double bassist Timothy Cobb maintains a busy schedule of chamber collaborations and solo appearances. Recent collaborations include the Guarneri, Emerson, and Belcea Quartets, as well as singer Ian Bostridge, pianist Leon Fleischer and actors Leonard Nimoy, Richard Thomas and Alan Alda.
Cobb makes regular appearances with the Met chamber players at both Weill and Zankel halls, as well as numerous concert series' nationwide. Cobb serves as principal bass for the Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as for the St.Bart's Music Festival, St.Barthelemy-French West Indies. Cobb is a past participant in the Marlboro Music Festival, also appearing on tour with the Musicians from Marlboro, and has collaborated with numerous artists ranging from Pinchas Zukerman and Yefim Bronfman, to James Levine and Joseph Silverstein. Cobb has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and many other festivals and concert series throughout the United States and is a faculty member of the Sarasota Music Festival in Sarasota, Florida, where he performs and coaches chamber music each June.
Cobb serves as the double bass department chair for the Juilliard School, as well as serving on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Conservatory of Music, Purchase College. He also holds the title of Distinguished Artist at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Mr.Cobb's students hold positions, both principal and tutti, in orchestras around the world, from the United States, Canada and Europe, to New Zealand and South Africa.
Cobb has been a guest instructor at numerous institutions including most recently the Royal Guildhall School of Music in London, England, The Toho School in Tokyo, Japan and the Longy School in Boston. In July of 2006, Mr.Cobb spent two weeks in Brussels, Belgium coaching the double bass section of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas in preparation for their international tour and in January 2007, joined the FEMUSC Festival in Brazil teaching and performing with double bass students from several South American countries.
Cobb can be heard on all Met recordings after 1985, as well as a 2003 Grammy-nominated recording of 'L'Histoire du Soldat' with the Harmonie Ensemble on Koch records and is currently recording the two-bass repertoire of Giovanni Bottesini with Thomas Martin, former principal bass of the London Symphony.
Cobb began his studies on the double bass at age seven, was playing professionally at thirteen, and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Roger Scott. While at Curtis, Cobb was a substitute bassist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and at age twenty-one joined the Chicago Symphony, becoming one of that orchestra's youngest new appointments. Mr.Cobb joined the Met Orchestra in 1986.
Hussein Zahawy - Percussion
Hussein Zahawy was born in 1980 in to a Kurdish family; he had early Persian childhood and then moved to UK in 1990 with his family where he grow up. Coming from a musical background, he was taught the daf [Kurdish frame drum], which initially became his main instrument by his grandfather at age of five. At a later age, he pursued his interest in other Kurdish and world percussion instrument. At the age of thirteen, he was invited to join the first national radio and television orchestra of Kurdish music in Europe.
Hussein has performed extensively in the entire world both as a soloist and accompanying other groups and ensembles. He has collaborated with Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Indian and Persian musicians as well as Kurdish. Those collaborations have resulted in several CD recordings and performances in the world music circuit, such as the festival of WOMAD in U.K and Canary Islands, WOMAX in Netherlands, World Sacred Music Festival in Morocco, Spain, and Europe, several tours in U.S.A and the Middle East. He holds regular workshops on Kurdish music and percussion in Europe and has given several presentations in various music conferences in London and abroad. Hussein also participated in several TV programmes and documentaries on Kurdish music, and playing on the sound track of the Hollywood movie 'Kingdom of heaven 'in 2005.
In 2000, he formed the Living Fire Ensemble, which for the first time in the history of Kurdish music brought together musicians from all over Kurdistan with the aim of uniting the many diverse regional musical style. Hussein is a freelance percussionist and actor, working on a variety of projects with multiple theatre companies in both the UK and US. He has recently completed a world tour, encompassing exotic locations such as Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia with Sami Yusuf, featuring as a solo percussionist. Hussein is also working with choreographers on two dance projects that will premiere in early 2008. He has recently recorded his first solo album of percussion compositions, to be released in October 2007.
Salar Nader - Percussion
Salar Nader, is one of the youngest and most sought after percussionist of his generation. Salar, born in Hamburg, Germany in 1981 is of Afghani origin and immigrated to America at the tender age of three. His Indian Classical Music training began at the age of seven with world renowned tabla maestro, Ustad Zakir Hussain, who is Salar's Guru/Ustad. Salar's amazing aptitude for tabla quickly made him one of Zakir Hussain's most talented prote'ge' to date.
As a percussionist who believes in diversifying his art, Salar is a favorable accompanist for many of India's, Afghanistan's, Pakistan's and Iran's renowned classical musicians. Recently, Salar composed and performed the music score for the world premiere of The Kite Runner theatrical play (novel written by Khaled Hosseini, adapted by Mathew Spangler and directed by David Ira Goldstein). Salar has currently collaborated on numerous global projects including; Kronos Quartet and Homayun Sakhi (Afghani traditions meets West), The Rumi Symphony Project (Shahram and Hafez Nazeri), Niyaz (Azam Ali), Chebi Sabbah & 1002 Nights (Electronica) and first time collaboration between Tajik, Uzbek and Afghan instrumentalist (Ustad Surajudin, Ustad Mukhtar & Homayun Sakhi). With over 20 years of guidance from Ustad Zakir Hussain, Salar has developed versatility for accompaniment in a diverse realm of musical genres. Salar is a virtuoso musician, whose quest is in transcending music without borders and finds tireless motivation in the infinite possibilities for the Tabla.
