About the Concert
"to you yourself, my very dear friend" —W.A. Mozart
This program is an exploration of sources of musical inspiration and the human and musical connections that feed them. Each work on the program carries with it a dedication or quote that gives us insight into the personal relationships or artistic influences that helped shape the creative process. Through these clues, we can come to understand the feelings, traditions and motivations that contributed to these compositions, highlighting the personal, political and practical stories behind some of the most beautiful and beloved works of the violin and piano repertoire.
Meet the Musicians
Violinist Rhiannon Banerdt made her solo debut at age 14 with the New England Symphonic Ensemble in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has since made solo and chamber music appearances at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, New York's Weill Hall at Carnegie, and Boston's Jordan Hall, among others, with performances hailed by Edith Eisler of Strings Magazine as “real music-making–concentrated and deeply felt.”
Ms. Banerdt is a founding member of the Ulysses String Quartet, winners of the First Prize at the 2018 Schoenfeld International Chamber Music Competition, Grand Prize at the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, First Prize at the 2017 American Prize Chamber Ensemble, and Silver Medal at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. Ulysses has been named the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the Juilliard School for 2019-2022 academic years.
Ms. Banerdt has participated in numerous eminent chamber music festivals including La Jolla Summerfest, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, and the Castleman Quartet Program, and collaborated with artists such as with the Emerson Quartet, the Borromeo Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, Marc-André Hamelin, Lara St. John, and Frans Helmerson. She currently holds the position of Assistant Concertmaster with the Cape Symphony.
Ms. Banerdt attended the New England Conservatory, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with honors as a student of Lucy Chapman and Paul Biss, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she studied with Mark Steinberg.
Praised by The New Yorker as an “exceptional young artist” and as a “major talent” by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, American pianist Matthew Graybil has performed throughout the United States, Canada, France and Holland and Mexico in venues such as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center and Lincoln Center. He has appeared on radio and television, including WNYC, WQXR, WWFM, CBS Chicago, the Discovery Channel and PBS.
Since making his orchestral debut at age 14, he has performed with the Fort Worth Symphony and the National Chamber Players among many others. An avid chamber musician, he has been invited to festivals including the American Academy in Fontainebleau, the Ravinia Steans Institute, the Sarasota Music Festival and the Perlman Music Program. Artists with whom he has collaborated include Itzhak Perlman and the Ulysses and Enso String Quartets.
He has been a prize-winner in the MTNA/Yamaha National Piano Competition, the New York Piano Competition, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the Juilliard Gina Bachauer Competition, the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition and the Wideman International Piano Competition.
Graybil was a pupil of Harvey Wedeen for six years and completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at The Juilliard School, where he worked with Jerome Lowenthal and Matti Raekallio.
Meet the Artist
Judi Harvest
American-born, multidisciplinary artist Judi Harvest— whose extensive catalog oeuvre includes an amazing collection of abstract paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and multimedia works—is a legend who is just as energetic, inquisitive, and imaginative today as when she first began her career more than 40 years ago. Harvest has created works that are among the most technically profound and playfully vibrant in contemporary art. Among other things, she is known for her detailed Murano glass sculptures - from fruits such as tomatoes and pomegranates to insects such as honeybees - in fascinating, lifelike forms, meticulously sculpted using centuries-old Italian glassmaking techniques.
