Violinist Blake Pouliot Kicks Off Recital Series At The Center For The Arts

Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot comes to Pepperdine University's Raitt Recital Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 15, 2019 as the first Recital Series performer of 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 Pouliot is available at blakepouliot.com.

His program includes Mozart's Violin Sonata in F major, K. 376, Bartók's Rhapsody No. 1, Kreisler's Caprice Viennois, Saariaho's Nocturne, Janáček's Violin Sonata, and de Sarasate's Zigeneurweisen.

Pouliot has emerged internationally as one of Canada's most eminent young artists. Recognized for his bold stage presence and sensitive yet commanding artistry, he has been described by the Toronto Star as, "One of those special talents that come along once in a lifetime." In November 2018, Pouliot was awarded the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, a career grant for a Canadian artist who demonstrates outstanding talent, musicianship, and artistic excellence in both Canada and on the world stage.

Pouliot's debut album featuring the works of Ravel and Debussy was nominated for a 2019 Juno for Best Classical Album after being released in 2018 on Analekta Records. Upcoming and recent career highlights include return engagements with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Toronto and Montreal Symphonies, and debuts with the San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Milwaukee, Vancouver, Detroit, and Atlanta Symphonies.

As Grand Prize winner of the 2016 Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition, Pouliot toured across South America during the summer of 2017 as soloist with the YOA Orchestra of the Americas performing Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons with conductors Carlos Miguel Prieto and Paolo Bortolameolli. He later returned to Montreal where he was featured in recital at the Montreal Symphony's Viree Classique series.

Since his debut with the Toronto Trinity Chamber Orchestra at age 11, Pouliot has performed as soloist with the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Ottawa Symphony, Pacific Symphony, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria, and the Colburn Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall; and with conductors Sir Neville Marriner, Nicolas McGegan, Tito Muñoz, Carl St. Clair, Alain Trudel, David Afkham, Vasily Petrenko, Alexander Shelley, David Danzmyer, and Hugh Wolff. Pouliot has performed in recital in Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto, and was featured on Rob Kapilow's What Makes it Great? series with Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

In 2018 Pouliot won both the Career Development Award from the Women's Club of Toronto and the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Arts Council. In 2013 he received the Canada Council for the Arts' Michael Measure Prize, which gave him the opportunity to tour with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto. Pouliot has also had the honor of performing a private recital for Canadian Prime Minister Stephan Harper in 2012.

Pouliot studied violin in Canada with Marie Berard and Erika Raum, and completed his training as an associate of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He attended many summer music programs, including the Aspen Music Festival and School, before graduating from the Colburn School Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Robert Lipsett, the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair.

He performs on the 1729 Guarneri del Gesù, on generous loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank as First Laureate of their 2018 Competition.

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.

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

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