92Y Presents
Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and
Guitarist Jason Vieaux
Performing Music by
Máximo Diego Pujol, Antonio Carlos Jobim,
Alan Hovhaness, Gary Schocker, Keith Fitch,
Carlos Salzedo, and Xavier Montsalvatge
Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 8pm
Kaufmann Concert Hall
1395 Lexington Avenue | New York, NY
Tickets: General $45-$65, Under Age 35 $25 at
212.415.5500 or www.92y.org
PLUS DEBUT ALBUM: Together (Azica Records)
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Watch Kondonassis and Vieaux Discuss Together: http://bit.ly/TogetherVideo
Listen to a preview of Together: http://bit.ly/
Yolanda Kondonassis: www.yolandaharp.com | Jason Vieaux: www.jasonvieaux.com
New York, NY — On Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 8pm, 92Y will present internationally acclaimed harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and virtuoso classical guitarist Jason Vieaux in recital at Kaufmann Concert Hall (1395 Lexington Ave). The concert is part of 92Y’s Art of the Guitar series and will include Máximo Diego Pujol’s Suite Magica; Alan Hovhaness’ Sonata, Op. 374: Spirit of Trees; Gary Schocker’s Hypnosis; Keith Fitch’s Knock on Wood; and Xavier Montsalvatge’s Fantasia. Kondonassis and Vieaux will also each play a solo piece, with Vieaux performing an arrangement Antonio Carlos Jobim’s A Felicidade and Kondonassis performing Carlos Salzedo’s Chanson dans la nuit. The concert will mark the New York debut of the duo.
The February 28 concert follows shortly after the release of the duo’s first album, Together, on Azica Records. Both the Schocker and Fitch works were written for and premiered by the duo. Together will be available on January 27, 2015 at all major retailers. (Review copies available upon request)
Kondonassis and Vieaux began playing together in 2011, with a single performance of Hovhaness’ Sonata, Op. 374: Spirit of Trees. Early in their rehearsals, they realized that they not only loved the combination of harp and classical guitar as a duo, but that they also enjoyed a great musical compatibility. The Cleveland Plain Dealer praised the duo’s performance as “a joy from top to bottom,” adding that “Kondonassis and Vieaux deserve to be termed magicians for the way they shaped phrases with natural fluidity, grace and, when required, fiery drama.” The Buffalo News raved, “it was difficult to hear where one instrument ends and the other begins – the mystical effect of one great intangible apparent throughout the program: the intuitive synchronicity of Kondonassis and Vieaux.”
The works on the album and on this concert program highlight the interplay and blended sonorities of harp and guitar particularly well. Kondonassis explains, “A common thread in compositions written for harp and guitar is often a nod to world music cultures – Latin, Asian, Middle Eastern, and everything in between. With two instruments of such ancient and folk-inspired traditions, rich global influence was hardly a surprise and the result is a sonic space unlike most chamber music territories.”
Of the title for the album, Kondonassis says, “We named this disc Together because the harp and guitar share so many musical, physical, logistical and acoustical similarities. There are times when our sounds are so interwoven that it’s difficult to tell which one of us is playing.”
About Yolanda Kondonassis: Hailed by The New York Times for her “powerful playing and musicianly energy,” Ms. Kondonassis has performed throughout the world in many of the most prestigious venues and is widely regarded as today’s most recorded classical harpist. Praised as “an extraordinary virtuosa” and “sheer luminescence at the harp, “ she has performed as a concerto soloist and in recital, appearing with numerous major orchestras such as The New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Fascinated by the creations of Maurice Ravel, her recording, Ravel: Intimate Masterpieces, is a celebration of Kondonassis’ longtime love of his music. Released in 2014, it was called “perfect in every way” by American Record Guide. American Harp, released in 2013, features original harp solos by John Williams, Lowell Liebermann, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Stephen Paulus, and Norman Dello Joio, marked her seventeenth album in a recording career that has broken boundaries and sold hundreds of thousands of discs and downloads worldwide. Her extensive discography includes Solo Harp: The Best of Yolanda Kondonassis, celebrating twenty years of critically acclaimed recordings, her Grammy-nominated Telarc release, Air dedicated to the music of Takemitsu and Debussy, and the world-premiere Telarc recording of Bright Sheng’s Harp Concerto, written for Ms. Kondonassis. The recipient of two Solo Recitalists Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2011 recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize, Ms. Kondonassis has been featured on CNN and PBS television as well as Sirius/XM Radio’s Symphony Hall, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, St. Paul Sunday Morning, Tiny Desk Concerts and Performance Today. In addition to her active performing and recording schedule, As an author, composer, and arranger, Ms. Kondonassis has published three books to date: On Playing the Harp, a comprehensive guide to harp technique and methodology that has quickly become a standard in the harp pedagogy literature, The Yolanda Kondonassis Collection, a compilation of her many original transcriptions, arrangements and compositions for the harp, and The Yolanda Kondonassis Christmas Collection, featuring Ms. Kondonassis’ most popular arrangements from her acclaimed disc, Dream Season: The Christmas Harp. Carl Fischer Music publishes all of her works. Ms. Kondonassis heads the harp departments at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and The Cleveland Institute of Music, and presents master classes around the world. Yolanda plays a Lyon & Healy Salzedo Model harp. For more information on Yolanda Kondonassis, visit: www.YolandaHarp.com
About Jason Vieaux: Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is the classical guitarist that goes beyond the classical. His most recent solo album, Play, was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. In June 2014, NPR named “Zapateado” from the album as one of its “50 Favorite Songs of 2014,” describing Vieaux as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.” Vieaux has earned a reputation for putting his expressiveness and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music, and his schedule of performing, teaching, and recording commitments is distinguished throughout the U.S. and abroad. His solo recitals have been a feature at every major guitar series in North America, as well as many important festivals abroad, and his many artistic collaborations have forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician and programmer. Recent and future highlights include returns to the Caramoor Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, New York’s 92nd Street Y, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Grand Teton, and many others. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres of works by Dan Visconti, Eric Sessler, José Luis Merlin, and more. He has performed as concerto soloist with nearly 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Houston, Toronto, San Diego, Fort Worth, and Buffalo. He continues to bring important repertoire alive in the recording studio as well, and has released thirteen albums which regularly broadcast around the world. In 2012, the Jason Vieaux School of Classical Guitar was launched with ArtistWorks Inc., an interface that provides online study with Vieaux for guitar students around the world. In 2011, he co-founded the guitar department at The Curtis Institute of Music, and he has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1997, heading the guitar department since 2001. Vieaux is a member of the Advisory Board of the Guitar Foundation of America. In 1992 he was the youngest ever winner of the prestigious GFA International Guitar Competition First Prize. He is also honored with a Naumburg Foundation top prize and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. For more information, visit www.JasonVieaux.com.
