Announcing solo debut with North Carolina Symphony and Music Director Carlos Miguel Prieto, on January 31

Happy New Year! I am thrilled to announce my upcoming solo debut with my wonderful colleagues of the North Carolina Symphony and our multi-talented Music Director Carlos Miguel Prieto. On our Friday Favorites series which features beloved classics of the chamber orchestra repertoire, we'll be showcasing an all-strings program including two perennial masterpieces by Bach, the Third Brandenburg Concerto and the Double Violin Concerto. Bartok's incredible Divertimento for Orchestra will round out the program. While I will be letting my colleagues take center stage for the Brandenburg and Bartok, I am excited to be featured as 1st violin soloist for the Double Concerto and collaborating closely with our Maestro as 2nd violin soloist. The work is intimately familiar and ingrained for all violinists from our days of early education starting with Suzuki Book 4, and has been with me more recently as well, as I last performed this work with the Dayton Philharmonic, featuring my stand partner Associate Concertmaster Aurelian Oprea and conductor Neal Gittleman (who, interestingly, was a previous mentor for Carlos!). We performed on a similar series there called Classical Connections and did some impromptu demos and discussion of the piece with our audience, including my dubbing of a certain excerpt from the finale as the "head-banging" section, where the soloists play repeated eighth note chords as the tutti pass around the theme in a circle of fifths. Since then, I've refined my playing quite a bit, and in our rehearsals later this month I look forward to seeing whether Carlos has a similar no-holds-barred approach, or perhaps a more elegant take on those particular bow strokes--as well as the rest of the piece! Join us at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh for a lovely matinee concert on Friday, January 31, 2025, at 12 p.m., and find out for yourself!