One of the world’s leading conservatories, the Curtis Institute of Music has produced such legends as Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, as well as current stars Juan Diego Flórez, Alan Gilbert, Hilary Hahn, and Lang Lang. Now a younger generation of alumni has come together for Curtis on Tour to present a program of violin, cello, and piano, a confirmation of Curtis’s mission of educating and training exceptionally gifted young musicians to engage a local and global community through the highest level of artistry.
Josef Špaček on violin (pictured), George Xianyuan Fu on piano, and Timotheos Petrin on cello. Please see About the Artists, below. The musical program will presente works by Beethoven and Dvořák.
A coupe de champagne will follow the concert.
Reservations are required: rsvp@artsarena.org. Free and open to the public. Due to limited seating, priority will be given to Arts Arena members. To join or renew your membership,
The Arts Arena is grateful to the Embassy of the United States of America in Paris for making this historic venue available to us for this concert. Please note the Embassy’s requirements for attendance, as follows.
This is a strictly personal invitation. Please present it and photo identification at the entrance. Complete vaccination certificate or negative test of less than 48 hours or certificate of recovery from Covid-19 will be required. Masks must be worn throughout the concert. The event is subject to government regulations and may be canceled depending on the evolution of the health situation.
CURTIS ON TOUR
The Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music
MUSICAL PROGRAM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
in D major, Op. 70, No. 1 (“Ghost”)
Allegro vivace e con brio (
Largo assai e espressivo
Presto
Antonín Dvořák(1841–1904)
in E minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”)
Lento maestoso—Allegro vivace, quasi doppio movimento
Poco adagio—Vivace non troppo
Andante
Andante moderato (quasi tempo di marcia)
Allegro
Lento maestoso—Vivace, quasi doppio movimento
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Josef Špaček
Praised for his remarkable range of colors, his confident and concentrated stage presence, his virtuosity and technical poise as well as the beauty of his tone, Josef Špaček has emerged as one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has appeared with major symphonies in Europe and Asia and has collaborated with renowned conductors, including Arts Arena Board member James Conlon. His recording of the violin concertos of Dvorak and Janacek was The Sunday Times’s “Recording of the Week, MusicWeb International’s “Recording of the month and of the year,” and received a 5-star rating in Diapason. As The Sunday Times wrote: “..in this repertoire, Špaček is second to none today.”
Josef Špaček studied with Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School in New York, Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo at the Curtis Institute of Music, and with Jaroslav Foltýn at the Prague Conservatory. He was laureate of the International Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and has won other top prizes internationally, in addition to serving as the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
George Xiaoyuan Fu
Described by the Boston Music Intelligencer as a “heroic piano soloist” with “stunning virtuosity,” Chinese-American pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and has collaborated with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Stefan Asbury, Kensho Watanabe, Vinay Parameswaran, and Jonathan Berman. He has appeared at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, and Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, while his live performances and interviews have been featured on public television and radio broadcasts around the world. He is also an active composer and performer of contemporary music.
After receiving a bachelors in economics from Harvard, he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music under Jonathan Biss and Meng-Chieh Liu, then at the Royal Academy of Music under Christopher Elton and Joanna MacGregor. He has also worked intensively with Pierre-Laurent Aimard on the music of Messiaen and Debussy, and is currently the Hodgson Piano Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.
Timotheos Petrin
Greek-Russian cellist, Timotheos Petrin gained international recognition as a top-prize winner at the prestigious International Paulo Cello Competition in Finland, where he was praised for “a great and passionate soloist style: expressive, vibrant singing lines, sparkling rhythm.” In 2017, he was named Young Artist in Residence at the Performance Today radio program of the American Public Media, the most listened-to classical music program in the United States, where his recordings were received with great success.
In addition to his concert appearances, he is an advocate for charity and philanthropic causes. In the Spring of 2016, he collaborated with the non-profit organization ‘Podari.Life’ and the renowned Russian actress Chulpan Khamatova in performances to raise funds for children with oncological and hematology diseases.
Born into a family of musicians, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2012 and studied with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley, receiving his Bachelor of Music degree in 2017. He is a scholarship recipient and fellow of the Onassis Foundation and currently studies at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of cellist Laurence Lesser.