Acclaimed Cellist to Perform in Berkeley on September 10

ACCLAIMED CELLIST AND PIANIST TO PERFORM IN BERKELEY ON SEPTEMBER 10

Acclaimed cellist and Bay Area resident Burke Schuchman, and award-winning pianist Brian Ganz, a faculty member at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, will perform works by Beethoven, Barber, Bruch, and Chopin on Friday, September 10 at 8 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. Guest artist and flutist Yael Ronen will join the duo in playing Haydn’s Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano in D Major in this beautifully conceived chamber concert.
The program opens with Beethoven’s A major Sonata No. 3, op. 69, for cello and piano. The first major composer to write for these two instruments, Beethoven completed the trio in 1808, the same year that he completed his Fifth and Sixth symphonies. Probably the most popular of his trios for cello and piano, No. 3 begins with a cello solo.
Samuel Barber’s Cello Sonata op. 6, also featuring Schuchmann and Ganz, follows. The Sonata was written in 1933, when Barber was only 22 and still a student at the Curtis Institute of Music. This piece begins with a piano solo
Next on the program is Kol Nidre, by Max Bruch ,originally written in 1881 for cello and orchestra. Bruch’s work incorporates Hebrew melodies, and the theme comes from the Kol Nidre prayer recited on Yom Kippur.
. Music by Chopin, for cello and piano and for solo piano, follow, including Introduction and Polonaise Brilliant. Haydn’s Trio for featuring flutist Yale Ronen concludes the program.
The Palomarin Chamber Music Foundation sponsors this special event. A non-profit organization based in Point Richmond, and founded in 1996 by Burke Schuchman, the Palomarin Foundation is dedicated to the promotion of chamber music through classes, workshops, and concerts.
Cellist Burke Schuchman has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in England, Europe, Israel, and the United States. Former principal cellist and soloist with the Sulzberger Solisten in Austria and with the Sacramento Symphony, he is principal cellist of the Mendocino Festival Orchestra.
Schuchman, who has taught at the University of California at Berkeley and at CSU Chico, is the artistic director of the Palomarin Chamber Music Foundation. He coaches in the adult chamber music program at the Crowden School in Berkeley.
Pianist Brian Ganz, one of the leading pianists of his generation, was co-winner of First Grand Prize in the 1989 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris. In 1991, he was a silver medalist in the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano Competition.
Ganz is Musician-in-Residence and on the piano faculty at St. Mary's College in Maryland. He is also a member of the faculty at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he serves as a teaching assistant to Leon Fleisher.
Flutist Yael Ronen, a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and the U.S., has also performed with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic. A professor of flute and a teacher of Hebrew at CSU Chico, Ms. Ronen is the principal flutist with the North State Symphony. She is a founding member of the Ronen Trio, with cellist Burke Schuchman and pianist Aileen James.
The First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley is located at 2407 Dana St. General admission for the concert is $25; seniors, $20, and students, $18. For additional information about the September 10 concert, either call (510) 234-4502 or email burkepalomarin@earthlink.net.

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