The American Recital Debut Award to Present Cellist John-Henry Crawford In Carnegie Hall Debut

Louisiana-born cellist John-Henry Crawford will make his debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 7:30PM in a program presented by the American Recital Debut Award to celebrate Crawford as its first recipient. The award was created by acclaimed pianist Victor Santiago Asunción, a frequent collaborator to Crawford who will perform alongside him in the program. With "polished charisma and singing sound" (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Crawford has been recognized from an early age as one of his generation's leading cello talents, releasing his third chart-topping album with Asunción - Voice of Rachmaninoff - in June 2023. The album has been streamed more than one million times in its first two months. In this program, the duo again perform selections from Rachmaninoff, complemented by a discerning range of classical and contemporary works including the Carnegie Hall premiere of David Sanford's Seventh Avenue Kaddish, composed for Matt Haimovitz's post-9/11 album Anthem.

The program opens with Capriccio, Lukas Foss's high-energy composition virtually tailor-made for Crawford and Asunción, with its alternating passages trading off the melody between the cello and piano. Seventh Avenue Kaddish follows, with its vision of a lone cellist near Manhattan's Ground Zero after the 9/11 terror attacks, wailing his musical lament amid the flattened buildings, dust and debris. Crawford and Asunción then perform the lyrical and hypnotic Dreaming, the third movement from Amy Beach's 4 Sketches. They follow with 3 Preludes, Gershwin's trio of jazz-infused works known for their Latin rhythms and bluesy melodies. The program's first half closes with Barber's Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Opus 6, a passionate chamber piece crafted in 1932 by the young composer while finishing his studies.

The program's second half is devoted to Rachmaninoff, beginning with Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19, the composer's intensely Romantic work in four movements, where the cello and piano play off one another as equals - the piano often introducing new themes that are then embellished by the cello. The program closes with Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, var. 18th - rightfully among the best known compositions in the composer's body of work and all of the classical canon.

The American Recital Debut Award was created in the spring of 2023 to promote an emerging classical musician, regardless of nationality and gender, who displays the potential for a performance career, by presenting that musician in a venue of international renown. The awardee will also receive professional guidance from the artistic advisory board behind this honor, as well as concert engagements for the next three years.

The awardee must demonstrate the ability to sustain a career that can transcend the ever-changing landscape of the performing arts. They must exhibit the capacity to create an audience in both live and online platforms, as well as an accessibility that will transcend the barriers of classical music to make it more available to everyone.

Asunción, a longtime chamber music partner of the legendary American cellist Lynn Harrell, created the award as a way of giving back in return for the opportunities that were opened to him through his association with Harrell. The awardee is chosen by Asunción in conjunction with a group of high-level musicians led by GRAMMY Award-winning cellist Zuill Bailey.

The inaugural award was presented to Crawford in light of his already accomplished career and potential for further excellence in classical performance. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Crawford won First Prize in the 2019 IX International Carlos Prieto Cello Competition and was named Young Artist of the Year by the Classical Recording Foundation. In 2021, he was named the National Federation of Music Clubs' 2021-2023 Young Artist in Strings. He was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music to study with Peter Wiley and Carter Brey at only 15 years old, going on to complete a Master of Music at The Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick, an Artist Diploma at the Manhattan School of Music with Philippe Muller, and further studies in Chicago with Hans Jørgen Jensen.

Performance Details: 

The American Recital Debut Award Presents John-Henry Crawford and Victor Santiago Asunción
Tuesday, October 3, 2023 at 7:30PM
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall | New York NY
Link: www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2023/10/03/JohnHenry-Crawford-Cello-Victor-Santiago-Asuncion-Piano-0730PM
For Tickets: CarnegieCharge (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org, or at the Box Office on 57th Street and Seventh Avenue.

Program:
Lukas Foss - Capriccio
David Sanford - Seventh Avenue Kaddish [Carnegie Hall Premiere]
Amy Beach - 4 Sketches: Dreaming
George Gershwin - 3 Preludes
Samuel Barber - Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Opus 6
--Intermission-
Rachmaninoff - Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19
Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, var. 18th

More About John-Henry Crawford

Crawford has given concerts in 25 states as well as Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland at venues such as The International Concert Series of the Louvre in Paris, Volkswagen's Die Gläsern Manufaktur in Dresden, and the inaugural season of the Tippet Rise Arts Center in Montana. Crawford gave his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra as First Prize Winner of the orchestra's Greenfield Competition.

In its first week, Crawford's debut album DIALOGO (Orchid Classics - June 2021) appeared on the Billboard Top 10 chart as well as the top 5 on iTunes and #1 on Amazon's Classical New Releases. The Arts Fuse wrote, "Crawford's performance is, in equal parts, intense and exuberant... Even if their example won't resolve our age's absurd self-centeredness, props to Crawford and Asunción for reminding us that, while our predicaments aren't new, there might be ways through the darkness," while The Strad asserted, "The clean, close recording is like seeing everything through a very powerful lens... a striking interpretation." In his follow-up album CORAZÓN, Crawford reunited with Asunción along with award-winning South Korean guitarist Jiji. Featuring works by Leo Brouwer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Carlos Guastavino, Manuel Ponce, Egberto Gismonti, and Astor Piazzolla, the album was called "an intense love affair with the music, history and culture of Latin America" (Gramophone Magazine).

While studying in Chicago, Crawford appeared on WFMT's Impromptu series and toured extensively with Steinway artist and pianist Victor Santiago Asunción. An advocate for the importance of artists leveraging social media, Crawford commands a strong Instagram presence, attracting tens of thousands of viewers to his project #The1000DayJourney, where he films artistic cinematic videos daily from his practice and performances for over 55,000 followers (@cellocrawford) to give a glimpse into the working process of a musician, recently passing the 1000-day mark.

Crawford's numerous competition prizes also include Grand Prize and First Prize Cellist at the 2015 American String Teachers National Solo Competition, the Lynn Harrell Competition of the Dallas Symphony, the Hudson Valley Competition, and the Kingsville International Competition. He has competed in the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elisabeth competitions and was accepted at the prestigious Verbier Academy in Switzerland for study under the tutelage of Ralph Kirshbaum and Torleif Thedeen.

John-Henry Crawford has been a fellow at Music from Angel Fire in New Mexico, the National Arts Centre's Zukerman Young Artist Program in Canada, The Fontainebleau School in France, and the Perlman Chamber Music Program. He was invited to perform at Boston's French Cultural Museum in a chamber music concert with Boston Symphony concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, Curtis President Roberto Diaz, and members of the Borromeo Quartet, and was the only student performer on a tour series to Costa Rica, Mexico, and Brazil, collaborating with artists Soovin Kim, Roberto Diaz, and Jason Vieaux as part of Curtis on Tour. While a student at Curtis, Crawford's recital performances were broadcast on WHYY public television in Philadelphia. He was interviewed for the recently released documentary Maestro about conductor Paavo Järvi, and is also interviewed and quoted in Dan Coyle's The Talent Code by Dan Coyle, a best-selling book about the science and neurology behind skill development.

Crawford is from a musical family and performs on a rare 200-year old European cello smuggled out of Austria by his grandfather, Dr. Robert Popper, who evaded Kristallnacht in 1938. He also performs on a fine French bow by the revolutionary bowmaker Tourte "L'Ainé" from 1790. Before attending Curtis, Crawford studied with concert cellist Andres Diaz of Southern Methodist University. In addition to music, he enjoys learning languages, reading about astrophysics, nature, performing magic tricks, and photography. Learn more at www.johnhenrycrawford.com.

About Victor Santiago Asunción

Hailed by The Washington Post for his "poised and imaginative playing," Filipino- American pianist Victor Santiago Asunción has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist.

A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Giora Schmidt, the Dover, Emerson, and Vega String Quartets. He was on the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival. He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. Festival appearances include the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe.

His recordings include the complete Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven for Piano and Cello, Sonatas by Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff with cellist Joseph Johnson, the Rachmaninoff Sonata with the cellist Evan Drachman, and the Chopin and Grieg Sonatas, also with cellist Evan Drachman. He is featured in the award-winning recording Songs My Father Taught Me with Lynn Harrell, produced by Louise Frank and WFMT-Chicago. Mr. Asunción is the Founder, and Artistic and Board Director of FilAm Music Foundation, a non-profit foundation that is dedicated to promoting Filipino classical musicians through scholarship, and performance. Victor Santiago Asunción is a Steinway Artist. Learn more at https://victorsantiagoasuncion.com/.

Photo Credit: Jiyang Chen