NEW YORK –– David Robertson, director of conducting studies in Juilliard’s College Division, will conduct a special centennial concert featuring violinist Robert McDuffie, cellist Julia Bruskin, and pianist Orli Shaham in Beethoven’s “Triple” Concerto with Juilliard’s Pre-College Symphony on Friday, March 8, 2019, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall. The program also features Rossini’s Overture to William Tell; Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov); and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy. McDuffie and Shaham are Juilliard Pre-College alumni, and Julia Bruskin is a College Division alumna.
Tickets at $10 for general admission are available at juilliard.edu/calendar.
Juilliard Pre-College, under the direction of artistic director Yoheved Kaplinsky, celebrates its centennial season this year with special concerts in addition to its full calendar of events. The season includes more than 250 free performances featuring the Pre-College Symphony and Pre-College Orchestra, Pre-College String Ensemble, and Pre-College choruses as well as chamber music concerts, opera scenes, and student and faculty recitals.
The Juilliard Pre-College Symphony is one of the Pre-College Division’s three age-based orchestras. With an average age of 15, the symphony rehearses weekly and presents three concerts each season. As a leading youth orchestra training program, the division strives to prepare its students for the rigorous demands and expectations of conservatory and college orchestral programs by offering workshops and readings led by renowned guest conductors and prominent professional orchestral musicians.
Meet the Artists
David Robertson, the director of conducting studies and distinguished visiting professor at Juilliard, is also beginning his final season as chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Also this season, Robertson has continued his rich collaboration with the New York Philharmonic, as part of music director and Juilliard alumnus Jaap van Zweden’s first festival for the orchestra, The Art of Andriessen. Other North American orchestras he’s conducting this season include those of Toronto, Montreal, Cincinnati, and Dallas in addition to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the BBC Scottish Orchestra, and ensembles in Munich, Prague, and Spain.
Cellist Julia Bruskin, a member of the Met Opera Orchestra, won first prize in the Schadt String Competition and was a prizewinner in the International Johannes Brahms competition in Austria. A founding member of the Claremont Trio, she won first prize in the 2001 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and was awarded the first ever Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award. The Claremont Trio’s tour schedule this year includes concerts at the Library of Congress and Lincoln Center as well as a four-concert series featuring Brahms’ trios at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The ensemble has recorded the complete trios of Mendelssohn and Shostakovich as well as a CD of American trios including works by Leon Kirchner, Ellen Zwilich, alumnus Mason Bates, and Paul Schoenfield. Bridge Records released the Claremont Trio’s newest recording of Beethoven’s “Triple” Concerto with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Beethoven’s Trio, Op. 1, No. 1. Bruskin frequently plays solo recitals accompanied by husband, Aaron Wunsch, a Juilliard faculty member. She is a frequent guest at summer music festivals, and has performed at La Jolla Summerfest, Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Saratoga, Bard, and Norfolk, and toured with the Musicians From Ravinia. Born in Boston, Bruskin began cello lessons at age 4. Her teachers have included Timothy Eddy, Joel Krosnick, Andres Diaz, Norman Fischer, and Nancy Hair. Bruskin took part in the Barnard-Columbia-Juilliard exchange program as an undergraduate at Columbia and received a master’s degree. She is on the cello faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
Grammy-nominated violinist Robert McDuffie enjoys a dynamic and multi-faceted career. While appearing as a soloist with the world's foremost orchestras, he has shared the stage with actress/playwright Anna Deavere Smith in Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail, playing Bach for Memphis Jook dancer Li'l Buck, and performing with Chuck Leavell and the late Gregg Allman in Midnight Rider. Philip Glass dedicated his Second Violin Concerto, "The American Four Seasons," to McDuffie. Mike Mills of the iconic band R.E.M. composed Concerto for Violin, Rock Band and String Orchestra for him. McDuffie is the founder of both the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy and the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in his native city of Macon, Georgia. He has appeared as soloist with most of the major orchestras of the world, including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; the Chicago, San Francisco, National, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, St. Louis, Montreal, and Toronto symphonies; the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Minnesota orchestras; Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, North German Radio Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Hamburg Symphony, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, Orquesta Sinfónica de Mineria; and all of the major orchestras of Australia. McDuffie is a Juilliard Pre-College and College alumnus.
Juilliard Pre-College and College alumna Orli Shaham has established an impressive international reputation as one of today's most gifted pianists. In demand for her prodigious skills and admired for her interpretations of both standard and modern repertoire, she has performed with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad. Highlights of her 2018-19 season include appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, China NCPA Orchestra, Bochumer Symphoniker, and the Dallas, San Diego and Milwaukee symphony orchestras; and the release of her recording of piano concertos by Mozart with the St. Louis Symphony in spring 2019.
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Program Listing:
Friday, March 8, 2019, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall
Centennial Event
Juilliard Pre-College Symphony
David Robertson, Conductor
Robert McDuffie, Violin
Julia Bruskin, Cello
Orli Shaham, Piano
ROSSINI Overture to William Tell
BEETHOVEN Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C Major, Op. 56 (“Triple”)
MUSSORGSKY Night on Bald Mountain (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov)
TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy
Tickets at $10 for general admission are available at juilliard.edu/calendar.
