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The Cello in the 21st Century – Three World Premiere Concerti, One Night

Several years ago, Dorian Wallace, a good friend of mine not just in music but also in politics and philosophy, floated the crazy idea of writing me a new cello concerto. This past January, we premiered it with he and his wife Hajnal Pivnik’s ensemble 10th Intervention. Truly a fantastic piece that deserves a great place in the standard repertoire.  

In the course of preparations for that, two more fantastic composers approached me, also interested in writing new cello concertos. Alyssa Weinberg, currently a PhD candidate in composition at Princeton University that I met while performing her work with the Louisville Orchestra, and Lev ‘Ljova’ Zhurbin, who I encountered over many years as I performed works and arrangements of his with the Silk Road Ensemble, A Far Cry, and the Louisville Orchestra.  

I knew that this was a rare opportunity for us all to get to make an impact on the repertoire. I was lucky to find a partner in Cecilia Huerta-Lauf and Laura De St. Croix and the NouLou Chamber Players.  The NouLou Chamber players is a flexible chamber music organization from all parts of the Louisville music community, with many members of the Louisville Orchestra participating. 

We are excited to be performing all three concertos, and giving the world premieres of two of them, at the Ogle Center at Indian University Southeast on

April 18, 2019, at 7:30 pm. 

Our goal is to raise funds and then record these wonderful concertos a year later, to be released on CD. 

More updates will come in the near future.  We hope to see you there!

Please click here if you’d like to make a donation to the NouLou Chamber Players and this project! 

Here’s a performance of Alyssa Weinberg’s “Prayer”, recorded live in Nashville

 

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