Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 4 p.m.

Program:

Manuel de Falla:  Suite Populaire Espagnole for Violin and Piano
Dmitri Shostakovich:  Sonata, Op. 134
(Intermission)
Olivier Messiaen: Theme and Variations
John Adams:  Road Movies
Robert Schumann: Sonata No. 1 in A minor

Violinist Leila Josefowicz has won the hearts of audiences around the world with her honest, fresh approach to the repertoire as well as her dynamic virtuosity. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Jaime Laredo and Jascha Brodsky, Ms. Josefowicz came to national attention in 1994 when she made her Carnegie Hall debut with Sir Neville Mariner and the orchestra of The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. She has since appeared with the world’s most eminent orchestras and conductors. A close collaborator of such leading contemporary composers as John Adams and Oliver Knussen, she is a strong advocate of new music, a characteristic which is reflected in her diverse programs and her enthusiasm for premiering new works. Ms. Josefowicz has recently premiered concertos written for her by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steve Mackey and Colin Matthews. She has also played first performances of Thomas Ades’s Violin Concerto, Concentric Paths, most notably with the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras and at the Aspen Music Festival. In recognition of her passionate advocacy and genuine commitment to the music of today, Ms. Josefowicz was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

Recent appearances in North America include performances with the Philadelphia, Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras and the Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston and Cincinnati Symphonies. Ms. Josefowicz has made Carnegie Hall appearances with the St. Louis Symphony and American Composers Orchestra and has played recitals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, St. Paul, and at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.

During the 2011/12 season Ms. Josefowicz appears with the Boston and San Francisco Symphonies playing the Salonen Concerto under the baton of the composer. She returns to the Toronto, National, Atlanta and Indianapolis Symphonies as well as to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and joins the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Moest for a performance of the Adams Violin Concerto at the Lincoln Center Festival. She is also the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2011/12 Artist in Residence.

Recent and upcoming engagements in Europe include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras, the London, Munich and Czech Philharmonics, the London Symphony, and the Finnish Radio Orchestra. Ms. Josefowicz will also perform the Salonen Concerto in London, Paris, Stockholm, Lisbon, Cologne, Berlin and Budapest.

Ms. Josefowicz’s debut recording with Sir Neville Marriner and the orchestra of The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in 1994 for Philips Classics was awarded a Diapason d’or. Subsequent releases on that label include Solo, a disc of unaccompanied works, which also won a Diapason d’or, and Bohemian Rhapsodies, a collection of virtuosic works with orchestra. She has also recorded For the End of Time and Americana with pianist John Novacek and the Mendelssohn, Glazunov and Prokofiev concertos with the Montreal Symphony. In addition, Ms. Josefowicz’s Nonesuch CD of John Adams’ Road Movies received a 2004 Grammy nomination, and a recital disc featuring the Shostakovich Violin Sonata received a 2007 ECHO Award. She has recorded the Knussen Concerto, live and conducted by the composer, at the London Proms for Deutsche Gramophone. Her most recent recording, The Dharma at Big Sur with John Adams conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has been released on iTunes.

A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1994 and a 2007 United States Artists Cummings Fellowship, Ms. Josefowicz currently performs on a Del Ges� made in 1724.

Pianist and composer John Novacek regularly tours the Americas, Europe and Asia as solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. In the latter capacity he has presented over thirty concerti with dozens of orchestras. Mr. Novacek studied piano with Peter Serkin, Bruce Sutherland, and Jakob Gimpel. His chamber music teachers were Jamie Laredo and Felix Galimir. A dynamic soloist as well as collaborator, he took top prizes at both the Leschetizky and Joanna Hodges international piano competitions.

Mr. Novacek’s major American performances have been heard in Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall as well as the 92nd Street Y, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Symphony Space. He has also performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center and at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles as well as in such international venues as the Th��tre des Champs-�lys�es in Paris, at London’s Wigmore Hall, and most of the major concert halls of Japan. He is also a frequent guest artist at festivals here and abroad, including New York City’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Aspen, Caramoor, Chautauqua, and Colorado College festivals, and at Ravinia, Wolf Trap, Verbier, and the BBC Proms in England.

Often heard on radio broadcasts worldwide, John Novacek has appeared on NPR’s Performance Today, on St. Paul Sunday, and on A Prairie Home Companion. He has also been frequently seen and heard on television including on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, on Entertainment Tonight, and on CNN International. Mr. Novacek is a much- sought-after collaborative artist. In addition to appearing with Leila Josefowicz, he has performed with Joshua Bell, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Elmar Oliveira and Emmanuel Pahud as well as with the Colorado, Harrington, Jupiter, New Hollywood, St. Lawrence, SuperNova, and Ying String Quartets. He also tours widely as a member of Intersection, a piano trio that includes violinist Kaura Frautschi and cellist Kristina Reiko Coooper. Mr. Novacek has given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers John Adams, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, George Rochberg, John Williams, and John Zorn.