Evenings of Dinner and Music: Brahms Cello Sonatas

I hope that you can join me at my home on the 18th of June for an evening of the cello and piano music of Johannes Brahms. These pieces are amongst my all-time favorites of the classical rep. In fact, as some of you know, they have long been something of an obsession of mine. They are extraordinarily beautiful, deeply and richly powerful. I love them dearly and I hope that you will love them as much as I do.

Dariusz Skoraczewski (Cello) is the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Principal cellist and has delighted audiences of many concert halls in America, Europe and Asia with his great artistic and technical command of the instrument. As a soloist he performed with numerous orchestras in the US including the National Philharmonic, Alexandria Symphony, Arlington Philharmonic, Qingdao Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In 2013 Dariusz was awarded the prestigious Baker Artist Award, the highest recognition for artists in Maryland.

As a chamber musician, Dariusz appeared in numerous chamber music concert series including the Candlelight Series, Music in the Valley, Music at the Great Hall in Baltimore and the Barge Music Festival in New York City. In November of 2005 he gave his Carnegie Hall debut, which was sponsored by the La Gesse Foundation. The cellist is also a member of a critically acclaimed ensemble – the Monument Piano Trio.
Dariusz began his musical education at the age of six and spent his school years in Warsaw, Poland where his teachers were Professor Z. Liebig and Professor A. Zielinski. He completed his higher education as a scholarship recipient at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore and perfected his art under the supervision of world-renowned cellist Stephen Kates.

The soloist’s repertoire is extremely diverse and includes compositions from early Baroque to the present. His debut CD “Cello Populus” is a collection of solo pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries and includes works of Hindemith, Ligeti, Crumb, Penderecki and others. Dariusz’s second album “Cello Phantasia” features music by Schumann, Franck and Rachmaninov.

Dariusz plays a 1702 Carlo Guiseppe Testore cello which is generously loaned by Marin Alsop in memory of her mother Ruth Alsop.

Michael Sheppard (Pianist) is a pianist of dazzling virtuosity and penetrating musicianship. Trained at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, he studied with the great Leon Fleisher and Ann Schein. As one of two 2003 Classical Fellows of the American Pianists Association he toured Southern Asia and the Middle East in collaboration with the Cultural Programs Division of the United States Department of State. Upon his return he made his Kennedy Center debut. Since then he has made his debuts with orchestras in the Midwest, Southeast, Southwest and Pacific Northwest in addition to solo recitals, radio-broadcasts, and master-classes throughout the nation and Europe, including several Weill (Carnegie) Hall recitals. Sheppard has received critical acclaim as a grand interpreter of transcriptions of operatic tunes as well as American musical theatre in addition to the traditional piano repertory. Deeply committed to new music, he has worked closely with composers Nicholas Maw, Michael Hersch, Robert Sirota and John Corigliano. Sheppard is a composer in his own right and often programs his original compositions.

In addition to being a Classical Fellow of the American Pianists Association, Sheppard has also been a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and the La Gesse Foundation and a prizewinner in the National Federation of Music Clubs National Competition. His recently-released album of contemporary American music.

What's the music?

Dariusz Skoraczewski Cello

Attendees

Nancy B.