Great Artists Series '25: Karen Gomyo, violin and Orion Weiss, piano

(Washington University Box Office - 314-935-6543)
*purchases only refundable due to presenter cancellation

Single Tickets
$35-40 general admission
$32-37 Wash U faculty/staff
$15 students/youth

Program:
Violin Sonata in G major, K. 379/373a (1781) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
     Adagio - Allegro
     Andantino cantabile (Theme and Variations)
     Allegretto

Toccata in E minor, BWV 914 (1710) by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) (solo piano)
Violin Diptych (2020) by Samuel Adams (b. 1985) (solo violin)

Intermission

Romance, Op. 11 (1873) by Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904)
Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 108 (1886 - 88) by Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
     Allegro
     Adagio
     Un poco presto e con sentiment
     Presto agitato

“a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity.” - The Chicago Tribune

Biography:

Karen Gomyo, “a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity.” (The Chicago Tribune), possesses a rare ability to captivate and connect intimately with audiences through her deeply emotional and heartfelt performances. With a flawless command of the instrument and an elegance of expression, she is one of today’s leading violinists.

Following a highly successful 23/24 season which saw Karen debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, and KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, in addition to returns to Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl, Dallas Symphony, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, she continues on tour to Australasia in concerts with the Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmanian, and West Australian symphony orchestras. Karen’s 24/25 season will bring more highly anticipated debuts with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestra RAI Torino, Helsinki, Oslo, and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras. Karen will also return to Indianapolis, Baltimore, Colorado,  and Kansas City symphony orchestras, and in Canada to the Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, NAC Orchestra in Ottawa, and Calgary Philharmonic.  

Other recent highlights include debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orquesta Nacional de España, Czech Philharmonic, and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, as well as returns to Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln.

As a passionate chamber musician, Karen has had the pleasure of performing with artists such as Olli Mustonen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Enrico Pace, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Julian Steckel, the late Heinrich Schiff, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, and guitarist Ismo Eskelinen with whom she has recorded the duo album Carnival on BIS Records.

She is also a champion of the Nuevo Tango music of Astor Piazzolla. She has collaborated with Piazzolla’s long-time pianist and tango legend, Pablo Ziegler, as well as with bandoneon players, Hector del Curto, JP Jofre, and Marcelo Nisinman. In 2021 Karen released A Piazzolla Triology (BIS Records), recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones.

Renowned for her commitment to commissioning new repertoire, Karen gave the U.S. premieres of Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto Adrano with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No. 2 Mar’eh with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington under the composer’s baton, and Xi Wang’s YEAR 2020: Concerto for Violin, Trumpet and Orchestra with Dallas Symphony Orchestra and trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, conducted by Fabio Luisi. In 2018, she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, written for her and commissioned for the CSO’s ‘Music Now’ 20th anniversary series.

Born in Tokyo, Karen began her musical career in Montréal and New York; she studied under the legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School before continuing her studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and New England Conservatory with Mauricio Fuks and Donald Weilerstein respectively. She also studied privately for a formative period in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. Karen participated as violinist, host, and narrator in a documentary film produced by NHK Japan about Antonio Stradivarius called The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, which was broadcast worldwide on NHK WORLD. 


One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators today, Orion Weiss is a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post). He has dazzled audiences worldwide with his “head-spinning range of colors” (Chicago Tribune) and has performed with all of the major orchestras of North America, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic.

In 2024 Weiss will release Arc III, the final album in his Arc recital trilogy (First Hand Records). His live performance schedule includes engagements with violinist James Ehnes, who joins Weiss for his return to London’s Wigmore Hall as well as for performances in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Seattle, Bloomington, Indiana, and Bergen, Norway. Among numerous engagements with U.S. orchestras, Weiss makes his David Geffen Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra. He is featured in recitals at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Italy’s Teatro Marrucino Biglietteria, and Washington University in St. Louis, as well as on a tour with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and an appearance at LaMusica Chamber Music Festival in Sarasota, Florida. Over the last year, he made his return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by Michael Tilson Thomas, debuted with the National Symphony; gave multiple performances in the United States, Canada, and Asia with violinist Augustin Hadelich; and appeared at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.

Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs at venues and festivals around the United States with such artists as violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets.

A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1999. That same year, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Weiss’s awards include the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and more. His teachers include Paul Schenly, Jerome Lowenthal, and Sergei Babayan. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax. Learn more www.orionweiss.com.
 

**All programs subject to change
 

 

 

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