Celebrate Mozart’s 269th birthday on January 27th with one of the world’s great violinists, Anne Akiko Meyers. She is joined by pianist Max Levinson who is known as an intelligent and sensitive artist with a fearless technique.
Anne Akiko Meyers
Anne Akiko Meyers is a muse and champion of today’s most important composers, conductors, orchestras and presenters. She has commissioned, premiered, and recorded a remarkable collection of new violin repertoire which has been performed around the world with leading orchestras, in recital and become staples of classical music radio and streaming platforms.
Anne received a 2024 GRAMMY® Award nomination for her live recording with Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic of Arturo Márquez’s Fandango, a concerto written for her in 2021, which she has performed dozens of times. In the 2024-25 season, Anne will continue to champion Fandango with the Cincinnati Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival, Sarasota Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City and the Canadian premiere with the Vancouver Symphony. Other season highlights include the world premiere at Carnegie Hall of Murmur, composed for Anne by Eric Whitacre, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In October 2024, Anne will be inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame, which will be streamed on Roku, honoring leading members of the Asian community across a wide array of disciplines.
Recent highlights included appearances with the L.A. Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, and on tour at Carnegie Hall — marking the L.A. Phil’s return to Carnegie Hall in over 32 years — and at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. In 2022 Anne premiered Blue Electra, a new violin concerto by Michael Daugherty, which received massive critical acclaim at The Kennedy Center with Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra.
The violinist’s first national television appearances were on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, at age 11, followed by performances that include Evening At Pops with John Williams CBS Sunday Morning, Great Performances, Countdown with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that year), The Emmy Awards, and The View. John Williams personally chose Anne to perform the theme from Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast, and Arvo Pärt invited her to be his guest soloist at the opening ceremony concerts of his new center and concert hall in Estonia.
Anne performs on Larsen Strings with the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest-sounding violin in existence.
For more, visit https://anneakikomeyers.com/
Max Levinson
Pianist Max Levinson won First Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition, the first American to achieve this distinction, and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 2005, he was given the Andrew Wolf Award for his chamber music playing. Levinson has performed as soloist with the symphonies of San Francisco, St. Louis, Detroit, and Baltimore, as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Recital appearances include the Kennedy Center, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Ravinia, Lincoln Center, and Wigmore Hall. Artistic Director of the San Juan Chamber Music Festival in Ouray, Colorado, he is an active chamber musician and has appeared at numerous music festivals including Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Marlboro, Tanglewood, La Jolla, Bravo/Vail, and Killington. He has several recordings, including his most recent, the Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano, with violinist Stefan Jackiw. Strongly committed to nurturing young audiences, Max Levinson has been a participant in the GRAMMY-in the-Schools program throughout the United States. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and the Chair of the Piano Department at Boston Conservatory. Born in the Netherlands and raised in Los Angeles, Levinson began studying piano at age five. He attended Harvard University, graduating cum laude with a degree in English Literature, and later completed his graduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Program:
W. A. Mozart: Sonata in G Major, KV 301
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Allegro
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Arturo Márquez: Danzon No. 2, arr. for Anne Akiko Meyers
INTERMISSION
Two songs by Morten Lauridsen, arr. for Anne Akiko Meyers
I. Sure on This Shining Night
II. Dirait-on (“As They Say”)
Aaron Copland: Sonata for Violin and Piano