Press Information
Trio from Transylvania
On Saturday, May 10 at 7:30 PM, Upper Hudson Musical Arts will present a concert by the Trio from Transylvania at the Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek ,N.Y. The group consists of Sylvia Ahramjian, violin, Ovidiu Marinescu, cello and Eugene Albulescu, piano. The Trio will perform the Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven, Andante con moto by Eduard Grieg, and the Piano Trio No.2 in E minor, Op.67 by Dmitry Shostakovich. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students. For more information, please call (518) 251-3751. The event is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency.
Background Information:
Violinist Sylvia Ahramjian has been acclaimed for her spirited performances and innovative programs. She has performed as soloist with Delaware and Lancaster Symphonies, as well as Bucharest Symphony. After her Romanian debut with Ploiesti Philharmonic in the Brahms Double Concerto, Sylvia Ahramjian returned to play with the orchestras of Iasi, Bacau, Ploiesti and Rimnicu-Vilcea. Together with her husband, cellist Ovidiu Marinescu, she presented duo recitals in Rome and Venice, Italy, sponsored by the Delaware Council for the Arts.
A well-respected teacher, Sylvia Ahramjian is Associate Professor of Violin and Viola at West Chester University. Last year she was a member of the FSDAI faculty delegation that visited China for an exchange program. Mrs. Ahramjian was a faculty member and performer at the Luzerne Music Center in New York, the Festival of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Americas in Puerto Rico, which is part of the Casals Festival, guest artist for Goppisberg Festival in Switzerland, and Adirondack Music Camp.
Mrs. Ahramjian is a graduate of the Juilliard School and she received her Master of Music Degree from Indiana University. Her teachers have included Ivan Galamian, Josef Gingold, Paul Rolland and Margaret Pardee. Sylvia Ahramjian was the Concertmaster of the Lancaster Symphony for over 20 years until spring 2004. She has a recording on Golden Crest Records of the Khachaturian Trio and this fall she will release a new recording with sonatas by Beethoven and Saint-Saens with Carl Cranmer, and Romanian traditional music with Ovidiu Marinescu.
Cellist Ovidiu Marinescu has performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Moscow Conservatory, and has been a soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony, the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, and the Bucharest Symphony. This season he performed with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the Slobodkin Center, and next January he will make his debut with the Kiev Philharmonic (Ukraine) in the Elgar concerto. Marinescu has performed at festivals in Luzerne, Bayreuth, Chautauqua, Orlando and Brasov, as well as New Hampshire Music Festival. In December of 2000, Ovidiu Marinescu premiered with Newark Symphony the "Anecdote," by Hilary Tann. To his critically acclaimed first recording "Fiesta Latina", this year he added a recording of the complete Miaskovsky cello works with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Kenneth Boulton.
Newly appointed conductor of the West Chester University Orchestra, Romanian born Ovidiu Marinescu combines an efficient technique with great musical inspiration. Under his leadership, the orchestra made a sold out debut at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and embarked in its first European tour during July of 2004. Marinescu is also the conductor of the Wilmington Orchestra, and served as the Music Director of the Manalapan Orchestra in New Jersey and principal conductor of the Goppisberg Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. His guest conducting includes the Bacau and Brasov Philharmonics in Romania. In 2002 Marinescu led the Delaware Chamber Orchestra in its first tour abroad, with performances for the South Bohemia Festival in the Czech Republic.
Known for his powerful
interpretations of the orchestral works by Russian composers such as
Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Marinescu was invited this season to
record Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 5 and Marche Slave with the Russian
Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow.
Award-winning artist Eugene Albulescu has performed and recorded on 4 continents. A New Zealand pianist of Romanian origin, Mr. Albulescu currently lives in the US. His education started in Romania, age 6, at the Enescu music school in Bucharest. His family moved to New Zealand on 1984 to escape Romania’s Communist regime. He won the TVNZ/NSZO National Young Musicians Competition in 1986. He completed his musical studies at Indiana University where, at 19, he was the youngest person ever to teach as an assistant instructor.
His emergence on the international scene came in 1994, when his debut recording (Albulescu Plays Liszt, MANU1446) earned him the Grand Prix du Disque Liszt, awarded for the best Liszt recording of the year, adding Albulescu’s name to that of legendary recipients such as Horowitz and Brendel. Since then, Mr. Albulescu has maintained a successful career in the United States and abroad, having appeared at prestigious piano series such as Viva Piano in Auckland, the Dame Myra Hess in Chicago, as well as Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
Noted critic Harold Schonberg praised Eugene Albulescu in the American Record Guide, for his “infallible fingers of steel”, declaring that “nothing, anywhere has any terrors for him”. Albulescu appeared in New York at BargeMusic in 1996, and later gave his Carnegie Hall Debut in the Stern Auditorium in 2001, performing the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Orchestra of St Peter. He gained national recognition in the US with broadcasts on several classical stations, as well as on NPR’s Performance Today. His outreach in over 100 US high schools with a program entitled “Inside the Piano” linking technology and creativity earn him coverage from the major media, including articles in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Enquirer, as well as the cover of Clavier Magazine. He is currently a Professor of Practice at Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, PA.
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UPPER HUDSON MUSIC ARTS
PO Box 581 · North Creek, NY · 12853 · (518) 251-3571
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These performances are made possible in part with public funds from the New York Council on the Arts, a State Agency.