Celebrity Series of Boston will present Itzhak Perlman, violin; Pinchas Zuckerman, violin/viola; and Rohan De Silva, piano on Sunday, November 19, 2017, at 5pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA.
Remaining tickets start at $52, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling the Celebrity Series box office at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at Symphony Hall's Box Office, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA.
This performance marks Itzhak Perlman's 29th appearance with the Celebrity Series; his debut was in 1971, and he was seen most recently in 2014. This performance will be Pinchas Zukerman's 18th performance with the Celebrity Series; his debut was in 1972, and he was seen most recently in 2010. Rohan De Silva's Celebrity Series debut was in 2000, and he was seen most recently in 2014 with Itzhak Perlman; this concert will be his seventh with the Celebrity Series.
Performance sponsors, Melinda and James Rabb, say, “We are pleased to support Celebrity Series’ presentation of three remarkable musicians whose artistry we have admired for many years. We look forward to the excitement of hearing them in live performance.”
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.
Having performed with every major orchestra and at venerable concert halls around the globe, Itzhak Perlman was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor, in November 2015 by President Obama for his meritorious contributions to cultural endeavors of the United States and for being a powerful advocate for people of disabilities. In June 2016, he received the 2016 Genesis Prize in recognition for his exceptional contributions as a musician, teacher, advocate for individuals with special needs and dedication to Jewish values. In 2003, he was granted a Kennedy Center Honor by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in celebration of his distinguished achievements and contributions to the cultural and educational life of the United States. President Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and President Reagan honored him with a Medal of Liberty in 1986.
Mr. Perlman has performed multiple times at the White House, most recently in 2012 at the invitation of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama, for Israeli President and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Shimon Peres; and at a State Dinner in 2007, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush, for Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. In 2009, he was honored to take part in the Inauguration of President Obama, premiering a piece written for the occasion by John Williams alongside cellist Yo-Yo Ma, clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gabriela Montero, for an audience of nearly 40 million television viewers in the United States and millions more throughout the world.
Pinchas Zukerman has remained a phenomenon in the world of classical music for over four decades. His musical genius, prodigious technique and unwavering artistic standards are a marvel to audiences and critics. Devoted to the next generation of musicians, he has inspired younger artists with his magnetism and passion. His enthusiasm for teaching has resulted in innovative programs in London, New York, China, Israel and Ottawa.
Pinchas Zukerman is equally lauded as a conductor as he is an instrumentalist, leading many of the world's top ensembles in a wide variety of the orchestral repertoire's most demanding works. 2017-2018 marks his ninth season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and his third as Artist-in-Association with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. As soloist and conductor, Mr. Zukerman leads the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Baltimore, San Diego, Vancouver, Nashville and New West Symphonies, and tours with Camerata Salzburg in Romania, Turkey, Hungary, Germany and Italy; and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the United States, United Kingdom and Italy. As a soloist, he appears with the San Francisco Symphony, Manchester Camerata, Prague Symphony Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony Orchestra in California and on tour in China. He joins long-time friend Itzhak Perlman for a gala performance of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The duo also appears in recitals with pianist Rohan De Silva in Boston, Newark, Miami and West Palm Beach. As the founding member of the Zukerman Trio, he travels with the ensemble to Savannah, Detroit, Chicago, Sedona and Germany. He frequently tours with cellist Amanda Forsyth in performances of the Brahms Double Concerto and other duo repertoire.
A devoted and innovative pedagogue, Mr. Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he pioneered the use of distance-learning technology in the arts over two decades ago. In Canada, where he served as Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra from 1999-2015, he established the NAC Institute for Orchestra Studies and the Summer Music Institute encompassing the Young Artists, Conductors and Composers Programs. He currently serves as Conductor Emeritus of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, as well as Artistic Director of its Young Artist Program.
Pianist Rohan De Silva has partnered with violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman in worldwide recitals, and every notable violinist on the concert stage today. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and at the White House at the invitation of President Barack Obama in 2012 for Shimon Peres; and at a State Dinner in 2007 hosted by President George W. Bush for Queen Elizabeth. A native of Sri Lanka, Mr. De Silva was invited in 2015 by the Prime Minister of his country to perform for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on his historic visit to Sri Lanka.
Mr. De Silva began his piano studies with his mother, Primrose De Silva, and with Mary Billimoria. He spent six years at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and received many awards including the Grover Bennett Scholarship, the Christian Carpenter Prize, the Martin Music Scholarship, the Harold Craxton Award, and the Chappell Gold Medal for best overall performance. Mr. De Silva was the first recipient of a special scholarship in the arts from the President's Fund of Sri Lanka. This enabled him to enter the Juilliard School, studying W.T. Martin Canin, Felix Galimir, and violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. He was awarded Best Accompanist at the Ninth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award presented to him by Itzhak Perlman at Carnegie Hall. Mr. De Silva has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, CBS/Sony Classical, Collins Classics in London and RCA Victor.
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 79-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world's greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.
From orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, spoken word, and more, Celebrity Series has been bringing great artists to Boston's major concert halls for nearly eight decades. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its Arts for All! community programs, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience-on stages, in schools, at home- everywhere.
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