Cellist Amit Peled Performs Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1 With Longwood Symphony Orchestra

On Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 8:00pm, Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled joins the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Hob. VIIb/1 in Jordan Hall, led by Music Director Ronald Feldman.

The program also includes Rossini's William Tell Overture and Schumann's Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 97 "Rhenish." The concert benefits Partakers: College Behind Bars, an organization that coordinates teams of volunteers who mentor incarcerated women and men as they pursue higher education through the Boston University Prison Education Program, the Tufts Prison Initiative, and the Emerson Prison Initiative.

Program Information
Longwood Symphony with Cellist Amit Peled
Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 8:00pm
Jordan Hall | 30 Gainsborough Street | Boston, MA
Tickets: $16-49
Link: http://longwoodsymphony.org/concerts-1/2019/3/9/march-9-2019

Program:
ROSSINI: Overture from William Tell
HAYDN: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Hob. VIIb/1
Amit Peled, Cello
SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 97 "Rhenish"

About Amit Peled
Israeli cellist Amit Peled, a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. At 6'5" tall, Peled started life as a basketball player and was called "larger than life" and "Jacqueline du Pré in a farmer's body" when he enveloped his cello. Peled strives to break down the barriers of the concert hall, about which The Baltimore Sun wrote, "His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we'll need more of if classical music is to survive."

Highlights of Peled's 2018-2019 season include performances of the Saint-Saëns cello concerto at the Kennedy Center, performances of the Penderecki cello concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic as part of the composer's 85th birthday celebration, a return to the Ravinia Festival in celebration of Peled's new recording of Brahms Cello Sonatas on the Casals cello, Bloch's Schelomo with the Bucharest Philharmonic; a return visit as a soloist to the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and a European tour as a soloist with the Tel Aviv Soloists. Peled also performs this season with the Apollo Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Sinfonia, and Fairfax Symphony Orchestra.

Recent career highlights include Bach Suite cycles in the United States, Europe, and Israel; a Naxos release with the Tempest Trio (Ilya Kaler, violin; Amit Peled, cello; Alon Goldstein, piano); a debut collaboration with the Peabody Chamber Orchestra led by Maestra Marin Alsop; performances of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto and Penderecki's Second Cello Concerto conducted by the legendary Penderecki himself; Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata recorded on the Casals cello; and a worldwide musical celebration of Beethoven's Cello/Piano Sonatas to commemorate the composer's 250th anniversary.

In September 2017, Peled published a children's book, A Cello Named Pablo, written by Marni Fogelson and illustrated by Avi Katz. Funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, it follows Peled's journey from the basketball courts of rural Israel to the world's great concert halls playing one of the most famous instruments of all time and continuing the legacy of Pablo Casals.

The Amit Peled Peabody Peled Cello Gang is composed of students from Peled's studio at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught since 2003 and was one of the youngest professors ever at a major conservatory. The students in the Peabody Cello Gang range in age from undergraduate freshmen to second year master's students, and the group comes together often to perform works written or arranged for cello ensemble. Peled and the Peabody Cello Gang also record in professional studios and tour regularly around the country, performing standard cello concerti with Peled as soloist and the Gang as orchestral accompaniment, as well as cello choir repertoire and more. Peled is also the founder, conductor, and artistic director of the Mt. Vernon Virtuosi, a chamber orchestra dedicated to launching the careers of recently graduated music students, which this year performs a three-program season in Washington DC, Virginia, and New York.

Peled has performed as a soloist with many of the world's top orchestras and in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin, and Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium. Of his enthusiastically received Alice Tully Hall concert debut performing the Hindemith Cello Concerto, The New York Times wrote that Peled produces a "glowing tone, a seductive timbre and an emotionally pointed approach to phrasing that made you want to hear him again."

Peled's extensive discography includes critically acclaimed CDs on the Naxos, Centaur, CAP, CTM, and Delos Labels. His release Casals Homage, which features the legendary 1915 Pablo Casals program, topped the iTunes charts in 2016. Peled and the Peabody Cello Gang released a cello ensemble album on Peled's own label CTM Classics in October 2017. His recording, To Brahms with Love... From the Cello of Pablo Casals, features Brahms' Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 performed with pianist Noreen Polera and was released on CAP Records in June 2018. The album was described by AllMusic as "[likely] composer-approved, more so than almost any other contemporary recording." Peled released a recording of Bach's iconic Cello Suites fall 2018.

As an active chamber musician, Peled is a founding member of the famed Tempest Trio with pianist Alon Goldstein and violinist Ilya Kaler. Their Dvo?ák CD on Naxos has been described as "The best 'Dumky' on disk ever!" by Fanfare Magazine. Peled frequently performs and gives master classes at prestigious summer music festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Schleswig Holstein and Euro Arts Festivals in Germany, Gotland Festival in Sweden, Prussia Cove Festival in England, The Violoncello Forum in Spain, and Keshet Eilon Festival in Israel, among others. For more information, visit www.amitpeled.com

About the Longwood Symphony Orchestra
Nationally recognized for its musical quality, innovative programming, and unique model of community engagement, the orchestra's members are primarily healthcare professionals from Boston's leading hospitals and universities, including doctors, medical students, research scientists, nurses, therapists, and caregivers--many of whom pursued music studies before turning to medicine. Under the direction of the consummately-talented Maestro Ronald Feldman, the LSO annually performs four masterworks concerts and one free concert at the Charles River Esplanade.

Photo by Leonid Novoselov

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