Program:

Here’s the program:

1) Johannes Brahms- Sonatensatz for Violin&Piano in C minor, opus Wo0

2) Ludvig van Beethoven- Sonata for Violin&Piano in E flat, op.12 no.3

Allegro con spirito

Adagio con molta espressione

Rondo: allegro molto

3) Sergey Prokofiev- Sonata for Violin&Piano in F minor, op.80

Andante assai

Allegro brusco

Andante

Allegrissimo

Pianist XAK BJERKEN has appeared with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Schoenberg Ensemble, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Glinka Hall in Saint Petersburg, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, and for many years performed throughout the US as a member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet.

He has worked closely with composers György Kurtag, Sofia Gubaidulina, Steven Stucky, and George Benjamin, and has premiered piano concertos by Stephen Hartke, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Jesse Jones, a recording of which was released by Naxos in September 2021. He is also director of Ensemble X, a new music group, and has held chamber music residencies at the Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival, and Olympic Music Festival.

Mr. Bjerken is Professor of Music at Cornell University, where he co-directs Mayfest with his wife, pianist Miri Yampolsky. He has also served on the faculties of Kneisel Hall, Eastern Music Festival, and Chamber Music Conference at Bennington College. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Conservatory as a student of and teaching assistant of Leon Fleisher. 

Florin Parvulescu was born in 1971 in Bucharest, Romania. He started playing the violin at the age of six at the Georges Enescu music school. In 1978, he attended the Juilliard School Pre-College division, studying with Shirley Givens.

By 1989, Florin Parvulescu went on to study at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where his principal teachers were Sylvia Rosenberg and Herbert Greenberg. He also worked closely with pianist Leon Fleisher and violinist Berl Senofsky.

In addition to earning Bachelors and Artist Diploma degrees at Peabody, Mr. Parvulescu was awarded numerous prizes, among them the Marbury Award and Yale Gordon award.

Mr. Parvulescu has given masterclasses at the Beijing Conservatory and taught at the Singapore International Violin Festival in 2018 . He was featured on the McGraw Hill Young Artist Showcase on WQXR radio NY, National Public Radio, WFMT Chicago, and King FM in Seattle. The San Francisco Chronicle has praised him for his “gleaming tone and pyrotechnics.”