Curtis Chamber Orchestra w/ Otto-Werner Mueller (conductor), Blumenschein (violin), and Amory (viola) December 5, 2008

Program:
Respighi: The Birds (Gli Uccelli); Leshnoff: Double Concerto [World Premiere]; Beethoven: Symphony in F Major, Op. 68, Pastorale

On Friday, December 5 at the Perelman Theater, The Curtis Chamber Orchestra will perform a program of Respighi, Leshnoff, and Beethoven, welcoming violinist José Maria Blumenschein and violist Mischa Amory as accompaniment. The Curtis Chamber Orchestra (as part of the renowned Curtis Institute of Music), draws its members from the Curtis Symphony Orchestra (comprised of over 100 players). The Orchestra has performed under the batons of Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle and Wolfgang Sawallisch, among others, also appearing as orchestra-in-residence at the Rencontres Musicales d'Evian in France and participated in Switzerland's Verbier Festival in 1998 and 1999. Graduates of the Curtis Institute have made and continue to make musical history as solo performers; in today's top 25 American and Canadian orchestras, 226 players are Curtis-trained, with 72 holding principal chairs.

Curtis-trained violinist José Maria Blumenschein received his first violin lesson at the age of four and is a founding member of the newly established Vertigo String Quartet. The Quartet has performed in America and Europe and was awarded first prize at the International Competition of the Duchi dAcquaviva in Italy in 2006. Blumenschein, winner of the Nelson Freire Competition in Brazil, among other awards, has also appeared as soloist in Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, and the U.S. He recently joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as associate concertmaster at the start of the 2007-08 season.

The evening's third performer, violist Misha Amory, is a founding member of the Brentano String Quartet and on the current faculty at the Juilliard School. Amory has also performed with orchestras in the United States and Europe and has been presented in recital at New York s Alice Tully Hall, Los Angeles Ambassador series, Philadelphia s Mozart on the Square festival, Boston s Gardner Museum, Houston s Da Camera series and Washington s Phillips Collection. He has been invited to perform at the Marlboro Music Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Vancouver Festival, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and he released a recording of Hindemith sonatas on the Musical Heritage Society label in 1993.

For more information on the musicians, please visit: http://www.curtis.edu/html/50600.shtml#chamberorchestra, http://philorch.org/pdfs/newsreleases/New%20Musicians%202007-Sept.pdf, and http://www.music.princeton.edu/~brentano/IndividualBios_MA.html

For more information on the composers, please visit:
Respighi:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottorino_Respighi
Leshnoff:http://www.jonathanleshnoff.com/
Beethoven:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven
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Get to Know the Musicians!

Listen and Connect: Misha Amory discusses composer Paul Hindemith in a short article entitled "Portrait of a Composer Through His Solo Sonatas":

http://www.juilliard.edu/update/journal/morseconcert_1001.html