This season's artists:

These are the names and biographies of the artists for the Fall season.

Sunday Afternoon, September, 21, at 4 PM.
RACHEL BARTON PINE, violin
with
ANDY SIMIONESCU, violin
ANN KIM, cello
Performers of Westchester favorite Rachel Barton Pine takes you on a musical journey covering four centuries and as many continents. She travels mostly unaccompanied, through Bach’s solo masterpieces, and the romantic pyrotechnics of Paganini, Ysaye, and the Moravian master Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. Her violin turns into a fiddle as she explores American, Celtic, and Spanish/Latin folk traditions and visits her native Chicago with hot and cool jazz and blues. Along the way, she’s joined by Performers of Westchester Artistic Director Andy Simionescu. And cellist Ann Kim provides the bass-line for a medley of Rachel’s favorite rock tunes in a pulse-racing finale you’ll have to hear to believe.

Friday Evening, September, 26, at 8:00 PM.
MARK PESKANOV, violin
RAMAN RAMAKRISHNAN, cello
STEVEN BECK, piano
Violinist and Bargemusic Executive Director Mark Peskanov returns, joined by his Bargemusic colleague, pianist Steven Beck and cellist Raman Ramakrishnan (both making Performers of Westchester debuts), with an exploration of the development of the piano trio from its great innovator Haydn -- to Mozart’s last sublime achievement in this medium -- and closing with an uncharacteristically mellow and congenial work from Beethoven’s middle period, which the composer reportedly performed “quite masterfully and very enthusiastically” at its premiere.

Sunday, October 5, at 4:00 PM.
ARIANNA STRING QUARTET
John McGrosso, violin
David Gillham, violin
Joanna Mendoza, viola
Kurt Baldwin, cello
The Arianna String Quartet, whose career highlights include a Fischoff Chamber Music Competition Grand Prize, and a Tanglewood residency, makes its Performers of Westchester debut with three Central European masterworks. Dvorák’s aptly nicknamed “American” quartet, composed while on summer vacation in Iowa, is infused with fiddle tunes, spirituals, birdsongs, and even some Native Americana. Janácek’s quartet is an unrequited love song, inspired by the 700 “Intimate Letters” he exchanged with a younger, married woman. And Hungarian Erno Dohnányi’s captivating high romanticism follows Dvorák in its Brahmsian treatment of folkloric motifs.

Friday Evening, October 17, at 8:00 PM.
CLAUDE FRANK, piano
ANDY SIMIONESCU, violin
EDWARD ARRON, cello
It is again our privilege to welcome legendary pianist Claude Frank with Performers of Westchester’s own Andy Simionescu and favorite cellist Edward Arron offering a musical feast for Beethoven lovers. The opening Violin Sonata, a middle period tour-de-force of ‘symphonic’ proportions is followed by the first of his last three piano sonatas, opus 109, with its sublimely beautiful third movement theme. After intermission, a three-concert cycle is completed with the third piano trio of his Opus. 1, and the “Kakadu” variations, based on a contemporary operetta tune, resemble his earlier “Diabelli” variations in transforming the mundane into the magnificent.

Sunday Afternoon, October 26,at 4:00 PM.
DAVID SHIFRIN, clarinet
PEI-YAO WANG, piano
Leading clarinet virtuoso and former Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Director David Shifrin teams up with CMSLC II member; pianist Pei-Yao Wang for a program that covers the bases of the single-reed literature. Mozart’s B-flat violin sonata sparkles in its arrangement for clarinet. Brahms was inspired to come out of his announced retirement to compose the F minor sonata for his friend Richard Muehlfeld. Poulenc’s lyrical sonata is one of his last important works. Debussy’s Rhapsodie with its New Orleans jazz influences is said to capture the very essence of the instrument, and Rossini’s ‘coloratura’ variations on a theme from his opera La donna del lago provide an fittingly brilliant finish.

Sunday Afternoon, November 2, at 4 PM.
TRIO CAVATINA
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
Harumi Rhodes, violin
Priscilla Lee, cello
with
Burchard Tang, viola
Andy Simionescu, violin
Trio Cavatina, which played its first professional engagement for Performers of Westchester, is back by popular demand for the third time. The program opens with Schumann’s G minor Trio, less often performed than his other two in the medium, but no less masterful. It is followed by Schubert’s unusual one movement “Notturno” – serene and ethereal, yet emotional, it seems to describe an evening of romance. For its compelling conclusion, Ieva, Harumi and Priscilla are joined by violinist Andy Simionescu, and Philadelphia Orchestra violist Buchard Tang for Dvorák’s marvelous combination of high spirits, deep emotions, and structural integrity.

Sunday Afternoon, Nov. 9, at 4:00 PM.
ORION WEISS, piano
Acclaimed Israeli pianist Orion Weiss has received the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Julliard School’s William Petschek Award and performed as soloist with such major orchestras as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco, Houston, and Louisville Symphonies. His fascinating program opens with Beethoven’s groundbreaking Op. 26 with its enigmatic Marche Funèbre and closes with the Opus 101, written in the countryside and described by the composer as “a series of impressions and reveries.” In between – Chopin’s delightful variations composed at age 17, which inspired Robert Schumann to proclaim “Hats off gentleman… a genius!” and Copland’s 1931 modernist milestone which Leonard Bernstein praised as “so prophetic… and wonderful.”