The beauty and sensitivity of Julia Bruskin on cello and Aaron Wunsch on piano, who are partners on stage and off, will be once again in evidence at 4 p.m. Aug. 18, at the Chapel Restoration.
Their playing has been described as “exquisite beauty of sound and expression” and “magic in his hands,” by Fanfare magazine and Paul Hostetter, Music Director of the Colonial Symphony, respectively. The program will feature a Rachmaninoff sonata, Bach’s Gamba Sonata in G Major and Lukas Foss’s Capriccio.
Bruskin has established herself as one of the premiere cellists of her generation, performing Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto at Avery Fisher Hall, as soloist with a number of symphony orchestras and as a member of the celebrated Claremont Trio. She was a featured performer at the Young Concert Artists Festival in Beijing in 2012. Her touring schedule has included Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center.
A frequent guest at summer festivals, she won first prize in the national Schadt String Competition and placed third in the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria. She is widely sought for master classes and has been visiting professor at Shanghai Normal University. A graduate of The Juilliard School and Columbia University, Bruskin became one of the few to complete the five-year BA/MM exchange program between the two schools. She made her concerto debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 17.
Praised for his bold interpretive skills and communicative sensitivity, Wunsch appears regularly on concert stages throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He has performed in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher and Alice Tully halls, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and has been soloist with the Yale and Colonial symphonies, among others.
A ten-city recital tour in China garnered critical acclaim and enthusiastic responses. Wunsch, who was a Fulbright Scholar at the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria, is at home in music from every era, including contemporary music. He is an Artistic Director of Music Mondays free concert series, held in Advent Lutheran Church/Broadway United Church of Christ, Broadway at 93rd Street, Manhattan. His master’s and doctoral degrees are from Juilliard, where he is a faculty member. He frequently lectures on American music and has given master classes throughout China.
The chapel, at 45 Market St., Cold Spring, is across from Metro-North Station, where free parking is available on weekends. This concert is made possible, in part, by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the State Legislature and public funds from Putnam County, grants managed and monitored by Putnam Arts Council. Contributions from the public are welcome. For more information visit chapelrestoration.org.
