Western Piedmont Symphony Announces November Double Concert Weekend

Western Piedmont Symphony will open its 60th anniversary MASTERWORKS concert series with BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH SYMPHONY on November 9th, and then perform a DISCOVERY FAMILY CONCERT: ROBOTS, MACHINES, AND MUSIC on November 10th.

The regional professional orchestra celebrates 60 years of music in the foothills of western North Carolina with more than seventeen concerts featuring music from across the centuries, from Bach to Beethoven, Stravinsky to Ravel, Gershwin to Ellington, and more.

Because of the effect of Hurricane Helene on the greater Catawba Valley and WNC region, Western Piedmont Symphony postponed its first planned MASTERWORKS concert of the season. Now the Western Piedmont Symphony will open the MASTERWORKS series on Saturday, November 9th, with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Also, on the program is a Baroque gem, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and the doubly demanding Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello featuring Misha Keylin, violin, and WPS principal cello Samuel Magill.

"The upcoming MASTERWORKS concert speaks directly to the moment in which we are currently living. The heart of the concert is Beethoven's iconic Symphony No. 5, which is about the raging difficulties of life that are ultimately transformed into a life affirming triumph. It reflects the essence of our shared human journey," noted WPS music director Matthew Troy. "Also on the program is the Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms, which was written in 1887 as a gesture of reconciliation after a falling out between friends, and the delightful Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by the Baroque master, J.S. Bach," added Troy.

Sunday, November 10th, is a fun day with the Western Piedmont Symphony's DISCOVERY FAMILY CONCERT. Themed ROBOTS, MACHINES, AND MUSIC, the fun, family-friendly concert is inspired by machines, motors, and robots, and features the music and songs of George Gershwin, John Williams, Beethoven, and The Beatles. Discover musical adventures of live symphonic music and explore where music and science meet in a concert of fun and familiar music and songs. Activities begin at 2:00 p.m., the music begins at 3:00 p.m. DISCOVERT FAMILY CONCERTS are presented in partnership with the Catawba Science Center and the new CSC exhibit, Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind and the Machine.

MASTERWORKS: BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH SYMPHONY is sponsored by Vanguard Furniture, Snyder Paper, Sandra Pait Clay and George Clay, III, and Associated Hardwoods. DISCOVERY FAMILY CONCERT: ROBOTS, MACHINES, AND MUSIC is sponsored by the Underdown Family Foundation. Western Piedmont Symphony also receives funding support from Arts Culture Catawba and the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

MASTERWORKS tickets are $20, $30, $40, $50 for adults, and $10 for students with valid ID. Concert start time is 7:30 p.m. DISCOVERY FAMILY CONCERT tickets are $5 for children, $10 for youth 12-17, and $14 for adults. Pre-concert activities begin at 2:00 p.m. and the concert starts at 3:00 p.m. To purchase tickets, visit wpsymphony.org, call 828.324.8603, or visit the WPS Box Office, located on the SALT Block at 243 Third Avenue NE, Hickory, NC, 28601. Box Office hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wed. - Fri. P.E. Monroe Auditorium is located at 775 6th St. NE, Hickory, NC 28601(on the campus of Lenoir-Rhyne University Please note: All programs, artists, venues, prices, and dates are subject to change.

Western Piedmont Symphony's 2024-2025 60th anniversary season continues Saturday, November 16, with CROSSROADS: A VIOLA CELEBRATION, where the piano and violas come together in a lush program highlighting the dark, rich voice of the viola! Works Brahms, Bridge, and more. Scott Rawls, viola; Kimberly Sparr, viola; Jim Douglass, piano. 7:30 p.m., at Drendel Auditorium, the SALT Block, Hickory; and Saturday, December 7, with FOOTHILLS POPS: HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR, everyone's favorite seasonal concert of holiday and winter music classics. 7:30 p.m. at J.E. Broyhill Civic Center, Lenoir. For more information about Western Piedmont Symphony concerts and events, visit wpsymphony.org.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Misha Keyin, violin

Since his New York Carnegie Hall début at age 11, violinist Misha Keylin has continued to earn critical and audience acclaim for his exuberant musicality, keen interpretive insight, and rare tonal beauty. Noted for a wide range of repertoire, Keylin attracted particular attention with his world-premiere four CD series, featuring all seven of Henry Vieuxtemps' Violin Concertos and showpieces with orchestra, released on the Naxos label. These recordings have sold over 150,000 copies worldwide and have garnered numerous press accolades and awards (such as "Critic's Choice" by The New York Times, Gramophone and The Strad).

In a career already spanning over fifty countries on five continents, Keylin has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Roberto Benzi, Irwin Hoffman, Eliahu Inbal, Vakhtang Jordania, Theodore Kuchar, Fabio Mechetti. John Nelson, Marco Parisotto, Alexander Schneider, Jörg-Peter Weigle, Bruno Weil and Takuo Yuasa, amongst many others. He has been guest soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Leipzig Chamber Orchestra, Marseille Philharmonic, NDR Philharmonic of Hannover, Budapest Philharmonic,

Israel Sinfonietta, Bologna Philharmonic, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Brandenburg Philharmonic, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Chile; in addition, he has performed with the National Symphony Orchestras of Ukraine, Latvia, Colombia, Costa Rica, and other noted ensembles. United States concerto and recital appearances have brought him to major venues in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Seattle, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Denver, and San Francisco.

As an active chamber musician, has been a regular guest artist with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and has participated at the Aspen, Ravinia, Newport (RI) and Australian Chamber Music festivals, amongst others. In 2011, Keylin became a founding member of the Hermitage Piano Trio together with renowned soloists - Sergey Antonov (cello) and Ilya Kazantsev (piano). The Trio has performed to similarly tremendous acclaim for audiences on major chamber music series in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Tucson, Newport (RI), Portland (OR), San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), and New Orleans. Recently signed to a multiple-album recording deal with Reference Recordings, the Trio's Debut CD - released in June 2019 - is comprised of the piano trios of Sergey Rachmaninoff: Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor; Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D minor, Op. 9; and Vocalise.

Misha Keylin began musical studies with his mother in St. Petersburg, Russia. He immigrated to the USA at nine and was immediately accepted as a student by the legendary Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. After winning New York's coveted Waldo Mayo Award as "Best Young Performer of the Year," Keylin went on to capture top prizes in the prestigious Hannover (Germany), Paganini (Italy), Sarasate (Spain) and Viña del Mar (Chile) competitions. Keylin has been a Career Grant recipient of the Clarisse B. Kampel Foundation, and he currently resides in New York and performs on a violin made by Antonio Gagliano in 1831, and bows made by Dominique Peccatte and Nicolas Leonard Tourte.

About Samuel Magill, cello

Cellist Samuel Magill has been called "...a world-class artist..." by Fanfare Magazine and his first Naxos CD, of Vernon Duke's 1945 Cello Concerto, was hailed as "flat-out magnificent" by the American Record Guide. After a 1990 concert, Lorin Maazel hailed Magill's playing as "...well-nigh perfect." In 2014, The Strad Magazine raved about Magill's "sumptuous tone" in his 2014 recital at New York's Bargemusic series, in which he and Beth Levin played the rarely heard Czerny arrangement of Beethoven's Kreutzer Violin Sonata. This led to their 2016 Navona CD, which includes the Kreutzer, the Solo Cello Sonata by Artur Schnabel, and the Ballade by Emanuel Moór. Writing in Classics Today, Jed Distler said "...Magill's superb technique, range of color, and intelligent pacing make a compelling case (for the Schnabel)." Among Magill's 20 CDs, his and his colleagues' (Elmira Darvarova, Craig and Mary Ann Mumm, and Scott Dunn) three volume survey of the complete chamber music of Franco Alfano, for Naxos, is a stand-out. ​

​Mr. Magill has appeared as soloist throughout Japan and the U.S., including performances of both the Schumann Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto in Tokyo's famed Suntory Hall, and the Brahms and the Haydn D Major Concerto in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. During nine tours of Japan, Magill performed, besides the above works, the concerti of Dohnanyi, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and the Triple Concerto of Beethoven. He has partnered with the pianists Oxana Yablonskaya, Pascal Rogé, and the late Grant Johannesen, and presented annual recitals from 1994 until 2019 at Lincoln Center's New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He is a co-founder, with flutist Lucian Rinando and harpist Grace Ludtke, of the flute, cello, and harp trio Sono Auros. They made their New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall to critical acclaim, with Strings Magazine declaring them "masters of their instruments." Magill is also a founding member of the New York Piano Quartet (Elmira Darvarova, violin; Ronald Carbone, viola; and Linda Hall, piano). Festivals Mr. Magill has participated in include the Tanglewood, Aspen, Tahoe, Castleton, and the Festival Albert Roussel in France and Belgium, for which he and pianist Diane Andersen played recitals in Bruges and Paris.

A pupil of the late Zara Nelsova, Mr. Magill also studied with Laurence Lesser at the Peabody Institute and with Shirley Trepel at Rice University. He is the former Associate Principal Cello with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a former member of the Houston Symphony, and a former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony. In his 43 years as a member of these orchestras, Magill worked with conductors Muti, Levine, Rattle, Bernstein, Ozawa, Maazel, Thielemann, Rozhdestvensky, Leinsdorf, Rudolf, Barenboim, Luisi, and Santi, among many others.

Mr. Magill is originally from Chapel Hill, NC, and attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for high school. There, he was a student of the late Irving Klein, who was a pupil of Emanuel Feuermann, as were Ms. Trepel and Ms. Nelsova.

About Western Piedmont Symphony:

Western Piedmont Symphony (WPS) is the professional orchestra of the western foothills of North Carolina, based in Hickory. For 60 years, WPS has enriched and engaged the communities of western North Carolina through high-quality symphonic music with creative, relevant performances, and educational opportunities for all ages. Each season, the Symphony presents an inspiring classical Masterworks series, a fun and entertaining Foothills Pops series, a variety of small music ensembles in the Crossroads series, family-friendly Discovery Family Concerts, plus education and community engagement programs in the Catawba Valley, all under the artistic direction of Maestro Matthew Troy. Western Piedmont Symphony is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council and is a funded affiliate of the Arts Culture Catawba. Business offices are located on the SALT Block at 243 Third Avenue NE, Hickory. Box Office hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Wed. - Fri. For more information about Western Piedmont Symphony, call 828-324-8603, visit wpsymphony.org.

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