Benjamin Baker to Perform Recital at The Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts

Violinist Benjamin Baker comes to Pepperdine University's Raitt Recital Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, 2020 as the final performer of the Recital Series for the 2019-2020 season.

Tickets, starting at $28 for adults and $10 for full-time Pepperdine students, are available now by calling (310) 506-4522 or visiting arts.pepperdine.edu. More information about Baker is available at benbakerviolin.co.uk.

His program includes Beethoven's Violin Sonata No.10 in G, Op.96, Tonia Ko's Plush Earth in Four Pieces, and Faure's Violin Sonata No.1 in A, Op.13.

Benjamin Baker, a New Zealand native, has moved audiences around the world with his musicianship, performing as far afield as Lebanon, China, Australia, throughout Europe and the US, and on tour in South America. He has performed as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic in London, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra, Sinfonia Cymru in Wales, National Children's Orchestra in Manchester, Auckland Philharmonia, Maui Pops Orchestra, and South Carolina's Long Bay Symphony. He has been reengaged to appear with the English Chamber Orchestra this season, performing the Strauss Concerto.

After winning First Prize and special performances prizes at the 2016 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Baker's first US tour included recital debuts on the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and at New York's Merkin Concert Hall, sponsored by the Peter Jay Sharp Prize. He has also given recitals at Wigmore Hall in London, in Ireland, performed multiple engagements at New York's Caramoor Center, and appeared at the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Port Washington Library, Haydn's Ferry Chamber Music Series, Jewish Community Alliance and Levine School of Music. This season the Young Concert Artists Series presents him in a special encore performance with pianist Daniel Lebhardt at New York's Morgan Library & Museum, and he also performs at Ithaca College and the Evergreen Museum & Library.

Baker's recording The Last Rose of Summer on Champs Hill Records, which includes works by Beethoven, Strauss and Kreisler, was featured on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM, and reached #22 on the charts the first week of release. He was a Fellow at the Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, won representation with London's Young Classical Artists Trust in 2013, and captured First Prize at the Windsor Festival International String Competition.

By popular demand, Baker has returned to New Zealand to play concerts and appear on radio and television broadcasts. For his devotion to charities for children, he is grateful to be an Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Port Nicholson, and he created and led a special London Music Masters project for young violinists with dancer Cheryl McChesney, which explored the connection between music and movement.

Currently a resident of London, Baker studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and with Natasha Boyarsky and Felix Andrievsky at the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rose Bowl graduation prize. He plays a Tononi violin (1709) on generous loan, and is recipient of support from the Wallace Foundation and Carne Trust.

For his recital, Baker will be accompanied by pianist Daniel Lebhardt. Lebhardt has impressed audiences and critics alike with his thoughtful interpretations and outstanding virtuosity. A native of Hungary, he currently lives in England, where he has played a Mozart Concerto at Royal Festival Hall, a BBC Proms concert broadcast on Radio 3, repeat performances at Wigmore Hall, and received the Royal Academy of Music's prestigious Patron's Award. Upcoming concerts include Beethoven's Emperor Concerto at King George's Hall with the Hallé Orchestra.

Lebhardt has appeared with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, at London's Steinway Hall, the Bela Bartok Memorial House and Liszt Museum in Budapest, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, Germany's Usedom Music Festival, and has toured China, Argentina, Colombia and Chile.

In the United States this season, he performs the Shostakovich Concerto No. 2 with the Venice Symphony and gives concerts for the Young Concert Artists Series at New York's Morgan Library & Museum, as well as for Ithaca College, Saint Vincent College (PA), Evergreen Museum & Library (MD), and Salon de Virtuosi. He has previously performed in the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and in New York's Merkin Concert Hall, for Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Embassy Series in Washington, DC and University of Florida Performing Arts, and in Canada at the Canadian Opera Company's Piano Virtuoso Series. He has appeared as concerto soloist in the U.S. with the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra and the Auburn Symphony Orchestra.

Lebhardt won First Prize at the 2014 Young Concert Artists Auditions in Paris, and then won YCA's International Auditions in New York and five special prizes. He also received the Most Promising Pianist Prize at the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition, as well as First Prizes at the Russian Music International Piano Competition in California, Citta di Gorizia International Piano Competition in Italy, Kosice International Piano Competition in Slovakia, Carl Filtsch International Piano Competition in Romania, and the Young Classical Artists Trust Auditions in London.

He attended the Special School of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest with István Gulyás and Gyöngyi Keveházi, and then studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton and in the studio of Pascal Nemirovski. He is currently obtaining an Advanced Diploma in Performance at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Lebhardt has played in master classes for Alfred Brendel, Leslie Howard, Ferenc Rados and Mikhail Voskresensky.

Lebhardt is featured on the Decca recording Béla Bartók: Complete Works, and it was recently announced that his debut solo recording will be issued by Naxos Records.

The Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University provides high-quality activities for over 50,000 people from over 1,000 zip codes annually through performances, rehearsals, museum exhibitions, and master classes. Located on Pepperdine's breathtaking Malibu campus overlooking the Pacific, the Center serves as a hub for the arts, uniquely linking professional guest artists with Pepperdine students as well as patrons from surrounding Southern California communities. Facilities include the 450-seat Smothers Theatre, the 118-seat Raitt Recital Hall, the "black box" Helen E. Lindhurst Theatre, and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art.

WHAT:

Benjamin Baker, Violin

WHEN:

Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 2 p.m.

WHERE:

Raitt Recital Hall, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA

TICKETS:

(310) 506-4522 or arts.pepperdine.edu

PRICES:

$28 for adults, $10 for Pepperdine students

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