“With you Armenia” Mischa Maisky at LPR

‘With You Armenia’ commemorates the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, featuring a host of international artists, for the first time performing together at New York’s renowned LePoisson Rouge.

Alissa Margulis, Lena Lisitsian and Lily Maisky are all prominent figures within the younger generation of today's instrumentalists, performing regularly together and individually all over the world. They will be joined by one of the greatest living cellists, Mischa Maisky, as well as Dr. Annie Dutoit who will speak to the theme of the evening.

What all of these performers have in common is that they meet every year since many years at the Martha Argerich Project in Lugano, Switzerland, where they perform chamber music together.

Says Lily Maisky:” We wanted to bring a little taste of this to New York, and in particular for this performance in question to commemorate the centenary of one of the worst and least discussed disasters of the 20th Century, the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The world is thankfully finally taking some notice of this tragedy with many cultural events taking place throughout the year all over the world. As musicians we would like to bring attention to some of the much under-appreciated Armenian Classical works out there by composers such as Arno Babadjanian and Vartapet Komitas. We will also present some other great works by Eastern European masters such as Sergey Rachmaninov and Dmitry Shostakovich. We feel very strongly about our responsibility to never forget and bring others to do so as well through one of the most direct forms of communication and commemoration, music.

Program:

Antonin Dvořák - Slavonic Dance for Piano 4 hands Op.72 no.2 in E-minor

Johannes Brahms – Hungarian Dance for Piano 4 hands no.1 in G-minor

Elena Lisitian, Lily Maisky

Arno Babadjanian - Piano Trio – Andante

Alissa Margulis, Mischa Maisky, Elena Lisitian

Vartapet Komitas – Qeier Tsoier

Dimitri Shostakovich – (transcription by Levon Atovmyan) four Preludes from Op. 34

Alissa Margulis, Lily Maisky

Arno Babadjanian – Elegy

Lily Maisky

Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky – Mélodie from Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher Op. 42, no.3

Aram Khachaturian (transcription by J. Heifetz) – Sabre Dance

Alissa Margulis, Elena Lisitsian

Sergey Rachmaninov – Vocalise, op. 34, no. 14

And Elegy, Op. 3, no. 1 (transcription by Mischa Maisky)

Lily Maisky, Mischa Maisky

Dimitri Shostakovich – Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67 in E-minor

-Largo-

-Allegretto-

Alissa Margulis, Mischa Maisky, Lily Maisky

BIOS:

MISCHA MAISKY has the distinction of being the only cellist in the world to have studied with both Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky. Rostropovich has lauded Mischa Maisky as "... one of the most outstanding talents of the younger generation of cellists. His playing combines poetry and exquisite delicacy with great temperament and brilliant technique."

Born in Latvia, educated in Russia, after his repatriation to Israel, Mischa Maisky has been enthusiastically received in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, New York and Tokyo, along with the rest of the major music centers.

He considers himself as a citizen of the world: „I’m playing an Italian cello, with French and German bows, Austrian and German strings, my daughter was born in France, my oldest son in Belgium, the middle one in Italy and the youngest one in Switzerland, I’m driving a Japanese car, wear a Swiss watch, an Indian necklace and I feel at home everywhere where people appreciate and enjoy classical music.”

As an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist during the last 30 years he made well over 35 recordings with such orchestras as Vienna, Israel and Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orpheus und Chamber Orchestra of Europe and others.

One of the highlights in his career was the year 2000 - it was mainly devoted to a world-wide Bach tour which included over 100 concerts! In order to express his deep admiration for this great composer, Mischa Maisky has recorded Bach's Solo Suites for the third time.

His recordings have enjoyed world-wide critical acclaim and have been awarded five times the prestigious Record Academy Prize in Tokyo, three times Echo Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, Grand Prix du Disque in Paris and Diapason d’Or of the Year as well as the coveted Grammy nominations.

Truly a world-class musician and regular guest in most major International Festivals he collaborated with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Carlo Maria Giulini, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Gustavo Dudamel and his partnerships have included artists as Martha Argerich, Radu Lupu, Nelson Freire, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Peter Serkin, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Repin, Maxim Vengerov, Joshua Bell, Julian Rachlin and Janine Jansen to name just a few.

Please visit www.MischaMaisky.com2014

N.B. NO CHANGES ALLOWED without our permission!!!

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LILY MAISKY was born in Paris, moving to Brussels soon after. She began playing the piano at the age of four, with Lyl Tiempo, also studying with Hagit Kerbel, Ilana Davids and Alan Weiss. Lily was a pupil at the “Purcell School of Music” from 2001 till 2005 where she also studied jazz piano. She has received master classes and musical advice from renowned artists including Martha Argerich, Dmitri Bashkirov, Joseph Kalichstein, Pavel Gililov and Vitalij Margulis to name a few.

Concert appearances have taken her throughout Europe as well as the Far East, and she has been invited to many of the great festivals such as the Verbier Festival, Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, the Edinburgh Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bergamo-Brescia, the Beijing Piano Festival, the Franz Liszt festival in Austria, Julian Rachlin and Friends in Dubrovnik, Rencontres de Bel Air in France, Gstaad Festival, the Schlesswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Berlin Festival as well as the English Chamber Orchestra Music Cruise. Lily has performed concertos under the batons of maestros Leonard Slatkin, Thomas Sanderling, Gerd Albrecht, Daniel Raiskin, Alberto Veronesi and Charles Olivieri Munroe, amongst others. She has also performed solo and ensemble works in such prestigious venues as the Royal Festival Hall in London, Vienna’s Concerthaus, Munich’s Prinzregentheatre, Hamburg’s Leiszhalle, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Venezia's La Fenice, Bonn's BeethovenHalle, Tokyo's Suntory Hall, Rome's Teatro Olimpico, Moscow Conservatory, Saint Petersburg Philarmonie, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Seoul’s Performing Arts Center, Athens Megaron and Buckingham Palace among many others.

Lily features on several Deutsche Grammophon and EMI recording releases, and has been frequently broadcasted on European and Asian radio and television. Her latest release is for Avanti Classics with Grammy Award winning Violinist Philippe Quint. She has a predilection for chamber music and forms a regular duo with Mischa Maisky, as well as the Maisky trio with her brother. She has also performed with such artists as Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen, Dora Schwarzberg, Renaud Capuçon, Chantal Juillet, Sergey Krylov, Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Frank Braley, Gérard Caussé as well as Alissa Margulis, Hrachya Avanesyan, Geza Hosszu-Legocky, Boris Andrianov, Isztvan Vardai, Alexander Mogilevsky, Orfeo Mandozzi, Alena Baeva, Boris Brovstyn and the Szymanowski Quartet.

"Lily Maisky establishes her credentials as an exceptional pianist" BBC Music Magazine

"Lily Maisky played with grace, vigor and composure proving how well rounded a musician she is." Musical Criticism, Edinburgh International Festival

"As an experienced, sensitive but independent young pianist, Lily Maisky presented herself in Munich’s Prinzregententheatre as highly talented." Süddeutsche Zeitung

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ALISSA MARGULIS The Guardian describes Alissa Margulis’ playing as “exceptional“, Ivry Gitlis praises it as “a revelation” and Martha Argerich calls her a “strong musical personality”.

Appreciated for her expressive and very emotional performances, Alissa Margulis regularly plays in important concert halls such as the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Cologne Philharmony, the Vienna Musikverein, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and Zurich, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Beethovenhalle Bonn, or the Schönberg Hall in Los Angeles.

Born in Germany into a family of Russian musicians, Alissa Margulis studied in Cologne with Zakhar Bron, in Brussels with Augustin Dumay and in Vienna with Pavel Vernikov.

She made her first public appearance at the age of seven with the Budapest Soloists and has performed since then with numerous orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Ile de Frane, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Bilkent Orchestra, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Belgian National Orchestra, the SWR and WDR Orchestras, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Kiev, Skopje, Ljubljana and Novosibirsk, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Kremerata Baltica, amongst others.

Alissa Margulis worked together with famous conductors: Jacques Mercier, Arnold Katz, Jaap van Zweden, Enrique Mazzola, Daniel Raiskin, Fabrice Bollon, François-Xavier Roth, Howard Griffiths, Hubert Soudant, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Christian Arming, Augustin Dumay, Mikko Franck and Gerd Albrecht to name just a few of them.

Besides her solo career Alissa Margulis is an enthusiastic chamber music player and collaborates with artists such as Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, David Geringas, Ivry Gitlis, Gidon Kremer, Bruno Giuranna, Mischa Maisky, Gabriela Montero, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexandre Tharaud, Alexander Lonquich, Polina Leschenko and Lars Vogt.

She further appeared at various Festivals: at the Enescu Festival Bucharest, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, in Davos, Tours, Stravanger Festival, at the Mozartwoche Salzburg, “Spannungen”-Festival in Heimbach, “Progetto” Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Verbier Festival and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

In the framework of „Martha Argerich and Friends“ EMI Classics released 6 CDs with chamber music and duo repertoire in which Alissa Margulis appears. She recorded all piece of Franz Liszt for violin and piano for Oehms Classics and for the label Novalis Alissa Margulis recorded Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 4 with the Camerata Switzerland under the baton of Howard Griffith.

Margulis’ recording of Alexander Glazunov’s violin concerto together with the Orchestra delle Svizzerra Italiana under the baton of Hubert Soudant will be released soon. As well as a klezmer CD together with Roby Lakatos, Myriam Fuks, Polina Leschenko and Mischa Maisky. Alissa Margulis is a titleholder of many international competitions, amongst others the Wieniawski competition in Poland, Spohr competition in Germany, competition for violin in Novosibirsk, Viotti Vercelli competition in Italy, Osaka chamber music competition in Japan, UNISA competition in Pretoria and the Vittorio Gui competition in Florence.

She was rewarded with the “Pro Europa” prize of the European Arts Foundation in 2002, which was presented to her by Daniel Barenboim in Berlin. In 2004 Alissa Margulis received the “Nouvelle Artiste” award of the Juventutis festival in Cambrai.

ELENA LISITSIAN

Russian-Armenian pianist Elena Lisitsian has made her debut performance at the Great Hall of Moscow State Conservatory at the age of ten. Being influenced by her grandfather, the great baritone of the Bolshoi Theater, Pavel Lisitsian, she developed a deep interest in music early on.

Ms. Lisitsian received her musical training in Moscow under Ms. Plyashkevich of the Gnessin School of Music. After moving to New York City, she continued her studies with Professor Nina Svetlanova at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Lisitsian has also worked under the tutelage of Elena Tatulyan.

Among her accomplishments are first prizes in Chamber Music Competition in Houston, Texas; “Ensemble Competition” and “Forshey” Piano Competition of Steinway & Sons. She has performed as a soloist and a chamber musician in Russia, Europe and the United States.

Her recent performances include an appearance with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles in Merkin Concert Hall, New York City, in Warsaw, Poland at the "Chopin and his Europe Festival" and in Moscow, Russia at the "Homecoming" Festival. Ms. Lisitsian has been participating in the “Progetto Martha Argerich” Festival in Lugano, Switzerland since 2011.

ANNIE DUTOIT was born in Switzerland in a family of prominent classical musicians. After her secondary studies in classics (Greek and Latin), she moved to the United States for college and graduate school. She received a B.A. in comparative literature from Princeton University, an M.A. in journalism from New York University and a Ph.D in French and romance philology from Columbia University in New York. Her dissertation explored the interaction between politics and aesthetics in 1930s anti-Semitic writings in France. Dr Dutoit has held faculty positions in various American universities, among which Barnard College in New York and more recently, Arizona State University where she teaches courses in literature and European intellectual history.

In addition to career as an academic and educator, Annie Dutoit is pursuing a career in the performing arts. Her training as an actor has led her to produce and perform in John Cage's radio play The City wears a Slouched Hat, and Stravinsky’s l’Histoire du Soldat in the USA, Japan and Switzerland. She is currently preparing works by Milhaud , Schoenberg and Ravel that integrate text, performance and music. In 2015, she has participated in several events to commemorate the end of WWII in Europe and honor the victims of extermination camps. She has also participated in Peace concerts in Japan commemorating the victims of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Annie Dutoit has published articles on music and literature and has given lectures at the Lugano Festival, Saratoga Chamber Music festival, as well as the Verbier festival. She has also participated in several international literature colloquia. As a journalist, Ms. Dutoit was a correspondent for the Argentinian music magazine "Clasica" and wrote articles for Japanese publications, notably Ongaku no tomo.