Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. ~Ludwig van Beethoven

 

 

 

Connecticut's Premier Chamber Orchestra

 

 

 

 

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Welte Hall

Central Connecticut
State University

1615 Stanley St. New Britain

 

Free admission,
donations welcome.

For more info please call the orchestra
at (860) 331-8757

 

Neal Larrabee

 

 

Neal Larrabee, pianist, has concertized extensively in the United States and Europe. He has performed in major music centers including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow. His appearances as recitalist and as soloist with orchestras have won critical acclaim. Nominated by the United States Information Service for performing under the auspices of the American embassies, Larrabee has toured Germany, Russia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. In Poland, Larrabee has become a well-known favorite of the concert-going public. There, his highly regarded interpretations of Chopin have led to recordings, national broadcasts on television and radio, and engagements in virtually every major concert hall. Invited for return engagements in Moscow, he performed at the Moscow Conservatory's Rachmaninoff Hall, the Moscow State University, and for the concert series presented at the U.S. Ambassador's Spaso House. Awarded a Fulbright grant for study at the Moscow Conservatory under Stanislav Neuhaus, Larrabee became the first American pianist to study in the former Soviet Union under official government sponsorship. He also studied with Eugene List at the Eastman School of Music and with Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the Josef Lhevinne Scholarship. He earned his doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook under Martin Canin. Larrabee has won honors in the Fifth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Ninth International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and was the first pianist to have been awarded the Artur Rubenstein Medal as winner of the Young Musician's Foundation Competition in Los Angeles.

Chopin's Bicentennial

Neal Larrabee, piano, Music by Chopin, Beethoven

co-production with the Polish Studies Program

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 7:30 PM - WELTE HALL, CCSU, NEW BRITAIN

Watch interview

with Neal Larrabee>>>

Concert Program:

Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1, Op.11 in E-minor

Beethoven: "Eroica" Symphony No. 3

 

Dear Friends:
 
It is my great pleasure to invite you to a performance of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, and Chopin’s Piano concerto in E-minor with pianist Neal Larrabee. Dr. Larrabee is great friend of the Virtuosi, and an extraordinary artist. We had a chance to speak with Dr. Larrabee in our studio, and parts of this interview are on the Virtuosi website (www.thevirtuosi.org).
 
The “Eroica” by Beethoven is not only a one of the greatest symphonies ever written, but it is also the composer's proclamation of hope and freedom. Beethoven wrote it as a reaction to raise and failure of the ideals of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven encapsulated in his music the highly charged emotional reaction to the social change of the time, the work shows that our music is always connected to the society, to the social issues of the day, and that creators always somehow react to these issues while drawing the inspiration from the moment.
 
The Symphony includes the famous funeral march which became a symbol of the composer’s resignation, and perhaps a broken promise of the time; nevertheless Beethoven leaves the dedication of the work: “heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man", while his hero fails to live up to the ideals, a “great and heroic man” will, and that is the hope of the human race.
 
Chopin’s concerto in E-minor speaks of a different hope, it looks within a human soul to find a harmony and piece, it does not scream about the ideals, but it puts these ideals at the altar of beauty and harmony. Music of Chopin is delicate like a flower, which we will all hold dear, knowing that one wrong move can destroy its beauty, regardless of who we are.
 
In a way Chopin answers the Beethoven’s question. If Beethoven asks where the “great and heroic man” is, Chopin responds: “in the soul of every one of us”.
 
I hope that you will attend our concert on February 27th at Welte Hall. It will be a great occasion to celebrate the 200 anniversary of Chopin’s birth.
 
Yours truly,


 
Adrian Sylveen, Artistic Director
Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra