Music Worcester Presents Andrew Armstrong, Kevin Zhu, And Jan Vogler In An Evening Of Chamber Music, January 24

Music Worcester presents pianist Andrew Armstrong, Kevin Zhu (violin), Jan Vogler (cello) in an evening of chamber music on Wednesday, January 24th at Worcester's BrickBox Theater at the Jean McDonough Performing Arts Center.   

The program will feature Tchaikovsky's Trio in A Minor as well as various selections for solo violin, cello, and piano. Tickets and information can be found at musicworcester.org. 

 

Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, Worcester resident Andrew Armstrong has performed across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw's National Philharmonic. Andrew is  a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, Boston Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Player, and serves as Artistic Director of Columbia Museum of Art's Chamber Music on Main series in South Carolina. 

 

“Andrew was one of the highlights of our 2020-21 season during the pandemic, performing a virtual concert from Mechanics Hall and we're thrilled to have him back- this time with a live audience, along with his talented colleagues Kevin Zhu and Jan Vogler” said Music Worcester's Executive Director Adrian Finlay.   

 

Violinist Kevin Zhu came to international attention after winning the 2018 Paganini Competition at just 17 years of age and has amassed an outstanding record of concert performances and competition wins since he began playing violin at age three. Praised for his “awesome technical command and maturity” (The Strad), Kevin has performed on the world's largest stages, ranging from Carnegie Hall in New York to London's Royal Festival Hall to the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.  

 

Cellist Jan Vogler's career has brought him together with renowned conductors and internationally acclaimed orchestras around the world, such as New York Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and London Philharmonic Orchestra.  In addition to his classical concert activities as a soloist, he will present a concert with inaugural-poet Amanda Gorman that integrates Bach cello suites with spoken word poetry at Carnegie Hall. In February 2024. 

 

Considered to be among the finest piano trios ever written,  Tchaikovsky dedicated his  Trio in A Minor “in Memory of a Great Artist,” his friend and mentor Nikolai Rubenstein.  No less a critic than George Bernard Shaw wrote “‘Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor exhibits all the qualities which have made its composer so popular.”   

 

The program will also include Armstrong playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue,  Zhu performing a selection of caprices for solo violin by Paganini; Vogler playing Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major; and Henry Mancini's classic Moon River, arranged for piano and cello. 

  

 

Music Worcester, Inc., originally known as the Worcester County Music Association, for years ran the Worcester Music Festival. Current programs reflect the merger in the mid-1990s of the Festival with the International Artists Series and the MA Jazz Festival. Great performances by world-renowned orchestras and guest soloists, chamber music, ballet, world music and dance, jazz and choral masterworks are hallmarks of Music Worcester's annual operations. Multiple educational programs currently serve youth and families of greater Worcester: masterclasses by visiting artists, Tickets to Opportunity, Festival Singers, in-school residencies, and the Young Artist Competitions. Integral to Music Worcester's annual operations, the Worcester Chorus has been part of the organization since the very first concert season in 1858. 

 

 

Tchaikovsky, Paganini and Gershwin, January 24 at JMAC's BrickBox, 20 Franklin Street in Worcester.  Tickets and information for all Music Worcester events can be found at https://www.musicworcester.org/schedule/.

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