For six extraordinary days, internationally acclaimed composer John Corigliano will join fellow international classical music superstars, cellist Matt Haimovitz, violist Kim Kashkashian, violinists Anastasia Khitruk and Lara St, John in the inaugural SoBe Arts American Masterworks String Festival to be presented, Monday, December 5 through Saturday, December 10 at the SoBe Institute of the Arts, it was announced by Executive Artistic Director Dr. Carson Kievman. "To bring SoBe Arts into national prominence has been my vision since we opened our doors six years ago," says Dr. Kievman. "The passion, artistry and distinctive sound of these internationally acclaimed musicians playing vibrant American repertoire will be a once-in a lifetime experience for South Florida audiences. With Corigliano as composer-in-residence along with such brilliant performing artists as Haimovitz, Kashkashian, Khitruk and St. John on campus, rarely will our community be offered the opportunity to hear such brilliant artists in performance in addition to participating in one-on-one lecture demonstrations and master classes." Most festival events will take place at the SoBe Arts campus, 2100 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach. Performances and demonstrations will be open to the general public for free or low-cost admission. The Festival will conclude on December 10th at the Colony Theater, Lincoln Road, with a pre-concert talk by Academy and Grammy Award winning composer, John Corigliano (The Red Violin) and a Festival Concert with all the guest artists performing. Complete schedule and ticket information for all events is available online at http://www.sobearts.org/StringFest.html.
A limited number of advanced string students and young professional players from across the country are invited to participate and attend daily master classes. For information visit: http://www.sobearts.org/StringFestSTUDENTS.html%20or%20call%20305.674.9220. American composer John Corigliano continues to add to one of the richest, most unusual and most widely celebrated bodies of work any composer has created over the last forty years. His numerous scores-including three symphonies and eight concerti among over one hundred chamber, vocal, choral, and orchestral works-have been performed and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world.
Recent scores include Conjurer (2008), for percussion and string orchestra, commissioned for and introduced by Dame Evelyn Glennie; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: The Red Violin (2005), developed from the themes of the score to the François Girard's film of the same name, which won Corigliano the Oscar in 1999; Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000) for orchestra and amplified soprano, the recording which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition in 2008; Symphony No. 3: Circus Maximus (2004), scored simultaneously for wind orchestra and a multitude of wind ensembles; and Symphony No. 2 (2001: Pulitzer Prize in Music.) Other important scores include String Quartet (1995: Grammy Award, Best Contemporary Composition); Symphony No. 1 (1991: Grawemeyer and Grammy Awards); the opera The Ghosts of Versailles (Metropolitan Opera commission, 1991, International Classical Music Award1992); and the Clarinet Concerto (1977.)
One of the few living composers to have a string quartet named for him, Corigliano serves on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music and holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman College, City University of New York, which has established a scholarship in his name.
Renowned as a musical pioneer, cellist Matt Haimovitz has inspired classical music lovers and countless new listeners by bringing his artistry to concert halls and clubs, outdoor festivals and intimate coffee houses, any place where passionate music can be heard. Through his visionary approach - bringing a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, championing new music and initiating groundbreaking collaborations, innovative recording projects, a tireless touring schedule as well as mentoring an award-winning studio of young cellists at McGill University's Schulich School of Music in Montreal - Matt is re-defining what it means to be an artist for the 21st century. He made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. At 17 he made his first recording with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Matt has since gone on to perform on the world's most esteemed stages, with such orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic with Levine, the New York Philharmonic with Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Kent Nagano. He made his Carnegie Hall debut when he substituted for his teacher, the legendary Leonard Rose, in Schubert's String Quintet in C, alongside Isaac Stern, Shlomo Mintz, Pinchas Zukerman and Mstislav Rostropovich.
