|
SHERBAN LUPU, violin
with MARTHA LOCKER,
piano
Rondo in B minor, D.
895 Franz
Schubert
(1797-1828)
Sonata Maurice
Ravel
Allegretto (1875-1937)
Blues
Perpetuum mobile
Ostrom Dinu D. Ghezzo
(b.
1941)
Intermission
Sonata in B flat
major, K. 454 Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart
Allegro (1756-1791)
Andante
Allegretto
Sonata in A minor,
op.25 no.3, “In Romanian folk style” George Enescu
Moderato
malinconico (1881-1955)
Andante
sostenuto e misterioso
Allegro
con brio,ma non troppo
mosso
* * *
One of the world's leading performers of George Enescu's music, Romanian-born Sherban Lupu
studied at the Bucharest Conservatory with George Manoliu.
While a student he performed throughout Eastern
Europe and on Romanian radio and television. Mr. Lupu left Romania
to study in London
at the Guildhall School of Music with Yfrah Neaman, and he took lessons and masterclasses
with legendary violinists Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szering, and Nathan Milstein as well as with Norbert Brainin of the Amadeus String Quartet and Sandor Vegh. Lupu has won prizes in numerous competitions such as
the Vienna International, Romanian National String Quartet, Jacques Thibaud in Paris, Carl Flesch in London, Royal
Society of Arts, and the Park Lane Group Contest. Subsequently Lupu came to the United
States to study with Dorothy De Lay and, at Indiana University, with Josef Gingold, and receive chamber music coaching from Menahem Pressler. Mr. Lupu is
currently professor of violin at the University
of Illinois and has been
artistic director of the Gubbio Festival in Italy and
associate concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera.
Appearing frequently as a soloist in Europe and
the United States,
Lupu has also performed the complete cycle of
Beethoven sonatas with Menahem Pressler. Mr. Lupu specializes
in the music of his native Romania
and Eastern Europe as well as the
virtuoso Romantic repertoire. Solo appearances include The Kennedy
Center, Gstaad Festival, Aldeburgh
Festival, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elisabeth Hall, Wigmore
Hall, St. John's Smith
Square, and Carnegie Hall. He has also
performed the Brahms and Čajkovskij violin
concertos in live broadcasts with the BBC Orchestra and has appeared as
soloist with the Northern Israeli Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Lupu has
collaborated with conductors such as Mendi Rodan, Sir Charles Grove, Harry Blech,
Cristian Mandeal,
Barry Wadsworth, Owain Arwell
Hughes, Ian Hobson, Kirk Trevor, among others. He has recorded works by Ysa˙e, Bartók, Enescu, Wieniawski, Ernst,
Stravinsky, Bloch, and Ginastera for the ASV,
Arabesque, Continuum, Electrecord, Capstone,
Zephyr labels, the BBC, and he has recently released a recording of
Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In collaboration with
the composer Cornel Taranu, Mr. Lupu has finished and reconstructed the Caprice Roumain
for violin and orchestra by George Enescu. That
work, performed by Mr. Lupu in a special
concert at the World Exhibition 2000 in Hannover
(Germany)
is included in the CD recording of the complete music for violin by
George Enescu, which he has made in
collaboration with Valentin Gheorghiu
and the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Cristian Mandeal for the Electrecord label.
Much in demand as a pedagogue, Mr. Lupu is a frequent member of international juries,
has given numerous masterclasses and taught
violin courses in England, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Romania,
Czech Republic, and Poland, where, in July 2004, he received from the
Ministry of Culture the Award for Outstanding Teaching.
In the year 2000 Mr. Lupu
received a lifetime achievement award from the Romanian Cultural
Foundation for his efforts to promote Romanian culture and music
internationally. In May 2002 he was given the prestigious "Arnold
Beckman" Award from the Research Board of the University of Illinois
towards the recording of the complete works for violin and piano by Bela Bartók. In November
2002 Mr. Lupu was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Academy of Music
"G. Dima" from Cluj
(Romania),
and in January 2004 the President of Romania conferred upon him the title
of Commander of the National Order of Merit and Service for his worldwide
musical and cultural activities.
In September 2005 Sherban
Lupu organized the American premiere of the
Opera Oedipus by George Enescu at the University of Illinois
and the symposium Oedipus Myth and Its Interpretation. For the academic
year 2005-06 Sherban Lupu
was appointed Associate of the Center for Advanced Studies at University of Illinois,
and since December 2005 Mr. Lupu is the
Artistic Director of the George Enescu Society
of the United States.
* * *
Pianist Martha
Locker leads a busy and diverse musical life, performing as soloist
and chamber musician both in the United States and abroad. Miss
Locker has won numerous competitions, including the Pittsburgh Symphony
Young Artists Competition, the Chautauqua Institute’s Piano
Competition, the Westmoreland Symphony Concerto competition, and the
Orchestra Nova Concerto Competition. She has also performed with the Knoxville
Symphony Chamber Orchestra and has given recitals in New
York, Pittsburgh, and Bermuda. Her
most recent engagements have included performances at the National
Gallery of Art and on Brooklyn’s Bargemusic series.
Miss Locker is an
active performer of repertoire from the traditional to the contemporary
avant-garde. From 1997 to 2001 she was a member of the New Juilliard
Ensemble. With the ensemble she
was a featured soloist in Chinary Ung’s Triple
Concerto, and she performed in the United States premiere of Sur Incises by Pierre Boulez. She was
also selected to tour with members of the ensemble to Leipzig in 2001. She was awarded Juilliard’s Orchestral Piano Fellowship in 2000
and 2001.
During the summers of
1998 and 1999, Miss Locker was a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center.
She has also attended the Sarasota Music Festival, the Chautauqua
Institute, and the Eastern Music Festival, as well as the 2002 Kyoto
International Music Festival.
Miss Locker holds
Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the Juilliard School,
where she studied with Peter Serkin, Jacob Lateiner, and Jerome Lowenthal. She has also studied piano with Natalie
Phillips of the University of Pittsburgh, and composition with Marilyn Thomas
of Carnegie
Mellon University. She is currently a student in the PhD
program at New York
University, where
she studies with Miyoko Lotto.
|
