Music in Midtown Concert Series to Present Sylvia Kahan, Piano and Quartet 131

On Thursday March 21 at 1PM noted concert series "Music in Midtown" is pleased to present Graduate Center faculty, Sylvia Kahan and members of Quartet 131 in a program of 20th century works reflecting the politics of inclusion. The concert will take place at the Elebash Recital Hall at the Cuny Graduate Center located at 365 Fifth Avenue in New York City. The concert is free and open to the public. To learn more visit Music at Midtown

The concert will feature pianist Sylvia Kahan and featured guest Quartet 131, whose members include violinists Lilit Gampel and Laura Jean Goldberg, violist Andy Lin, and cellist Robert La Rue, whose individual years of performance as soloists, chamber, and orchestral musicians inspire a profound dedication to exploring celebrated masterworks and unsung works for string quartet.

The concert program will present Amy Beach's Piano Quintet Op. 67 in F# Minor (1907) as well as Five Folksongs in Counterpoint by Florence Price and the String Quartet Op. 110, No. 8 in C Minor (1960) by Dmitri Shostakovich.

About the Musicians: Sylvia Kahan is Professor of Music at the Graduate Center and College of Staten Island, CUNY, where she is a member of both the Piano and Musicology faculties. As a pianist, she has performed as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in all of New York's major halls and in concerts venues throughout North America and Europe. Her recitals have been broadcast on WQXR, WNYC, and National Public Radio. She has participated in the Tanglewood, Aspen, Waterloo, Delta, and Nancy (France) summer festivals. She has collaborated with the English Chamber Orchestra, sopranos Dame Felicity Lott, Roberta Peters and Shirley Verrett, and members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony.

Violinist Lilit Gampel enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and teacher. She has performed as guest soloist with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Boston Symphony, and the Concertgebouw, and has collaborated with the legendary Pierre Fournier, Kiril Kondrashin, and Zubin Mehta, among others. Her recitals have included appearances at the San Francisco Opera House and Chicago's Symphony Hall. Gampel has also performed regularly as a member of the Mostly Mozart Festival, American Ballet Theatre, New York Chamber, and Gotham Chamber Opera orchestras.

Laura Jean Goldberg, violin, is a seasoned chamber musician, solo artist and teacher. She performed as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Chamber Music Faculty at The Juilliard School pre-college division. As a founding member of the Cassatt Quartet, Goldberg was a prizewinner at Banff, Coleman, and Fischoff competitions, held residencies at Juilliard, Yale, Tanglewood, Caramoor, and performed internationally. She performs with Random Access Music, a contemporary music group that presents the Queens New Music Festival in LIC and has worked with leading composers of our time.

Taiwanese-born violist and erhuist Andy Lin is recognized as one of the most promising and the only active performers who specialized in both Western and Eastern instruments. Lin is the artistic director and co-founder of the New Asia Chamber Music Society. He has also appeared as a soloist with the viola and/or erhu with orchestras such as the Busan Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic, the Juilliard Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Orford Academy Orchestra, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra. Lin is also a member of the Musicians of Lenox Hill and serves as principal violist of the New York Classical Players and the Solisti Ensemble.

Robert La Rue was the winner of the National Society of Arts and Letters Cello Competition, whose jury was chaired by Mstislav Rostropovich. Formerly the cellist of the New England String Quartet, he is a member of the Alcott Trio and the cello ensemble, VC3. He appears regularly with the Phoenix Chamber Players at Manhattan's Center for Jewish History and has been a guest of the Locrian Chamber Players and the Alaria Ensemble. La Rue has performed as soloist with the Banff Festival Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra and orchestras in Seattle, Phoenix and Denver.

Music in Midtown is a series of free lunchtime concerts spotlighting the highly regarded musical performance program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Presented in the warm, intimate, acoustically rich Elebash Recital Hall, these performances feature the music program's renowned faculty, alumni, outstanding performers selected from students in the DMA program and noted guest artists. Some concerts are followed by a master class, which the public is invited to observe. Norman Carey is Director and Jacqueline Martelle is Assistant Director.